Headline

King Charles Welcomed In Wales Amid Cheers, Protest

Published

3 years ago

September 16, 2022

Editor

Crowds cheered for King Charles III in Wales on Friday though some voiced protest against his ascent to the throne, as footballing royalty David Beckham joined a miles-long queue to mourn the late queen in London.

In Cardiff, Charles met in private with Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, an avowed republican, and there was isolated booing on the streets after the new monarch was quick to declare his son William the new Prince of Wales.

But Drakeford said questions over the future of the monarchy would “be a footnote to the dominant feelings of the day”, following the death on September 8 of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.

Large crowds chanted “God save the king” as Charles shook hands with well-wishers following a multi-faith service in Llandaff Cathedral, and at Cardiff Castle, on the last of his visits to the UK’s four nations.

In a speech at the parliament of Wales, which alternated between English and Welsh, he vowed to follow the “selfless example” of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

Charles added that William’s “love for this corner of the Earth is made all the greater by the years he himself has spent here” — after his heir trained as a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot in Anglesey.

Outside Cardiff Castle, a few protesters held up banners declaring “Abolish the Monarchy”, “Citizen not subject” and “Democracy now”.

On his return to London, Charles was due to join his siblings — Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — for a family vigil in front of the flag-shrouded casket as it lies in state in London.

– Playing for the queen –
The “Vigil of the Princes”, with all four royals in ceremonial military uniform, will last for 15 minutes from 1830 GMT.

Eight of the queen’s grandchildren, including William and his brother Harry, are expected to hold a similar vigil on Saturday evening.

Elizabeth’s death has triggered an outpouring of emotion, with tens of thousands from all backgrounds and many nations queueing for hours, often through the night, to pay their respects in Westminster Hall.

The queue was paused on Friday after a park at the end of the line along the River Thames reached capacity, the government said, warning that those at the end faced a wait of 14 hours.

It resumed nearly an hour later. Beckham, the footballer turned fashion icon, was near the front in the afternoon after joining it in the early hours of Friday.

“I thought by coming at 2:00 am it was going to be a little bit quieter — I was wrong,” Beckham told ITV News, as selfie-seeking fans briefly held the queue up.

The ex-Manchester United and Real Madrid star said every time the national anthem — then entitled “God Save the Queen” — had been played at England matches “meant so much to us”.

Another queueing was Peter Stratford, 70, a former firefighter who was one of the first on the scene of a huge fire in 1992 at Windsor Castle, where the queen will be buried on Monday.

“My ankles are killing me, but it’s a small sacrifice to make,” he told AFP after waiting in line for eight hours.

“I’ve been tearful, emotional… I wouldn’t have missed it.”

At Westminster Abbey on Monday morning, the queen will be honoured with Britain’s first state funeral in nearly six decades, with more than 2,000 guests expected.

– Row with China –
After the televised service, the coffin will be transferred by royal hearse to Windsor Castle, west of London, for a family-only burial in which the queen will be laid to rest alongside her late husband Philip, parents and sister.

US President Joe Biden, Australian leader Anthony Albanese, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have all confirmed their attendance at the funeral, as have Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and numerous other royals.

Police are mounting Britain’s biggest-ever security operation for the funeral, as the global dignitaries jet in and crowds file past the queen’s casket round the clock all weekend.

Early Friday, two police officers were stabbed in central London, one suffering “life-changing” injuries, the Metropolitan force said, but it ruled out any link to terrorism.

An official delegation from China has been banned from attending the lying-in-state following an intervention by House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, parliamentary sources said.

It comes after China sanctioned several British lawmakers over their criticism of the country’s human rights record.

“As the hosts, the British side should uphold both diplomatic courtesy and gracious hospitality,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

Downing Street refused to comment.

– ‘Waste of money’ –
In Westminster Hall, the sombre atmosphere is completed with members of the king’s guard in ceremonial uniform posted around the podium in a constant vigil.

Mourners marked their moment in front of the coffin in various ways, from bows or curtsies to the sign of the cross or by simply removing their hats, an AFP reporter observed Friday.

Some wiped away tears. Others brought infants in pushchairs. Old soldiers stopped and gave one last salute to their former commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, in Cardiff, many had waited for hours ahead of Charles’s visit.

“Something like this won’t happen again,” said barman Jack Grimshaw, 27, who turned out with his young son.

“The royal family has been around for so many years (but) we didn’t have a new king for so long.”

Not everyone was happy to see the new monarch in Wales. Zahra Ameri, 22, said the funeral was a “waste of money”.

“I’m hoping that Wales becomes independent. Of course, it would be a disturbance in our economy because we do rely on the UK, but I strongly believe in independence,” she said.

AFP

Related Topics:Charles Queen Elizabeth Wales

Up Next

UK Publishes Names Of Dead Nigerians With Unclaimed Estates, Assets

Don't Miss

Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral – What To Expect

Comments

Headline

Three Ghanaian Nationals Extradited To US In $100m Online Fraud Case

Published

6 hours ago

August 9, 2025

Editor

Three Ghanaian nationals accused of orchestrating a $100 million online fraud scheme targeting U.S. businesses and vulnerable Americans have been extradited to New York, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Isaac Oduro Boateng, a/k/a “Kofi Boat,” Inusah Ahmed, a/k/a “Pascal,” and Derrick Van Yeboah, a/k/a “Van,” arrived in New York on August 7 after being extradited from Ghana.

They are scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger. A fourth defendant, Patrick Kwame Asare, a/k/a “Borgar,” remains at large.

According a post on the FBI website on Friday

“As alleged, Isaac Oduro Boateng, Inusah Ahmed, Derrick van Yeboah, and Patrick Kwame Asare led and participated in an international fraud ring that engaged in a massive conspiracy to defraud vulnerable people and steal from businesses,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.

“Offshore scammers should know that we, the FBI, and our law enforcement partners will work around the world to combat online fraud and bring perpetrators to justice.”

All these are detailed in a press release dated August 8, 2025, on the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said, “Deceiving businesses using email compromise campaigns and tricking innocent elderly victims through fraudulent companionship in order to exploit their trust and finances is not merely appalling but illegal.

“The FBI will continue to ensure anyone who preys on companies and vulnerable Americans online is made to face the criminal justice system.”

Prosecutors say the defendants held senior positions in a Ghana-based network that posed as romantic partners to older victims and used fraudulent emails to trick companies into wiring funds.

After securing the money, the proceeds were allegedly laundered through West Africa, often directed by “chairmen” such as Boateng and Ahmed.

All four defendants face multiple federal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and receiving stolen funds, with each wire fraud count carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The case is being handled by the Southern District of New York’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.

Headline

Israeli Fire Kills 34 In Gaza

Published

6 hours ago

August 9, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 34 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including more than a dozen civilians who were waiting to collect aid.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP nine people were killed and 181 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on them as they gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza that has been used for aid deliveries.

Six more people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza, he said.

Strikes in central Gaza also resulted in multiple casualties, according to Bassal, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed at least three people and wounded several others.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence and the Israeli military.

Thousands of Palestinians congregate daily near food distribution points in Gaza, including four managed by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Since launching in late May, its operations have been marred by almost-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect aid.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of supplies into Gaza since the start of the war nearly two years ago have led to shortages of food and essential supplies, including medicine and fuel, which hospitals require to power their generators.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

But early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe.

Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Netanyahu has remained defiant over the decision.

In a post on social media late Friday, he said, “We are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas.”

The Palestinian militant group, whose October 7, 2023, attack triggered the war, has slammed the plan to expand the fighting as a “new war crime”.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, figures the United Nations says are reliable.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

AFP

Headline

Zelensky Rejects Land-for-peace Deal Ahead Of Trump-Putin Alaska Summit

Published

6 hours ago

August 9, 2025

Editor

Ukraine won’t surrender land to Russia to buy peace, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned, on Saturday, after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska next Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of the negotiations.

Announcing the summit on Friday, Trump said that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides, without providing further details.

“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said on social media hours later.

“Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said, adding that the war “cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine”.

Zelensky also urged Ukraine’s allies to take “clear steps” towards achieving a sustainable peace during a call with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

National security advisors from Kyiv’s allies — including the United States, EU nations, and the UK — were gathering in Britain on Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron, following phone calls with Zelensky, Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said “the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians” and that Europe also had to be involved in the negotiations.

Later Saturday, in his evening address, Zelensky added: “There must be an honest end to this war, and it is up to Russia to end the war it started.”

– A ‘dignified peace’ –

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit could bring peace any closer as the warring sides’ positions are still far apart.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe, and Kyiv for a ceasefire.

Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.

Ukraine’s leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and has frequently said meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.

– Far from the war –

The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.

Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

Zelensky said of the location that it was “very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people”.

The Kremlin said the choice was “logical” because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their “economic interests intersect”.

Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later.

Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, with Trump trying to broker peace in Ukraine without making a breakthrough.

On Friday, Putin held a round of calls with allies, including Brazil, China, and India, in a diplomatic flurry ahead of the Alaska summit.

In a 40-minute phone conversation Saturday between Putin and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian leader reiterated his support for dialogue “and the pursuit of a peaceful solution”, his office said.

The US president had earlier imposed an additional tariff on India for buying Russia’s oil in a bid to nudge Moscow into talks. He also threatened to impose a similar tax on China, but so far has refrained from doing so.

– Fighting goes on –

Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other’s positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday.

A bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine’s frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16.

The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, the site of the most intense fighting in the east and one of the five regions Putin says is part of Russia.

Four people were killed as of Saturday morning in Donetsk after Russian shelling, Ukrainian authorities said.

In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson — despite not having full control over them.

Russia had previously annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support, and be excluded from joining NATO.

Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.