Turning 40 is a big occasion, so the Duchess of Sussex needed to come up with a something special to celebrate.
In a video released to mark her milestone birthday, Meghan can be seen chatting through ideas with her Hollywood pal Melissa McCarthy.
The pair discuss getting matching tattoos, but Meghan jokes that she already has “something really similar across my back” and it’s maybe one to save for the 50th. So that’s out.
Image: Meghan released a video with Melissa McCarthy to launch the 40×40 project for her 40th birthday. Pic: Archewell
McCarthy then asks if the duchess is going to reunite with her castmates from legal drama Suits, the show that made her famous.
She doesn’t entirely dismiss it, but questions why that would be part of her birthday celebrations.
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McCarthy, star of films including Bridesmaids, Spy and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, also teases the duchess by asking if she will mark the occasion with “another photo shoot under a tree where you’re looking very peaceful”, in reference to the picture Harry and Meghan releasedwhen they announced they were expecting their second child.
“Peaceful under a tree is me every day,” Meghan replies.
Image: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released this photo when they announced they were having a second child. Pic: Misan Harriman
In outtakes seen at the end of the clip, McCarthy asks whether “afternoon tea with your chickens” – which Meghan spoke about in her famous Oprah interview earlier this year – is an option, and the pair burst into laughter as they realise Harry can be seen juggling outside.
But the real reason for the video is actually the announcement of the 40×40 project, which involves 40 activists, athletes, artists and world leaders who Meghan has asked to contribute 40 minutes of their time to support women re-entering the workforce.
The duchess is urging other people to get involved too.
“Because I’m turning 40 I’m asking 40 friends to donate 40 minutes of their time to help mentor a woman who’s mobilising back into the workforce,” she says in the clip, which has been released on Harry and Meghan’s Archewell website.
“Over two million women in the US alone and tens of millions around the world have lost their jobs due to COVID. And I think if we all do it and all commit 40 minutes to some sort of active service, we can create a ripple effect.”
In a statement on the website, Meghan said that women are “shouldering the brunt of the crisis when it comes to unpaid labour, including schooling and caring for family members” and that research shows “fewer women than men will regain work” as the world recovers from the pandemic.
McCarthy shared the video on her Instagram page, and said: “Whether you donate time to mentoring, community service, or any act of service that you can, we can all contribute to a global wave of compassion and positive change together.”
Derek Chauvin – the ex-police officer jailed over the murder of George Floyd – was stabbed 22 times with an “improvised knife” in prison, it has emerged.
The 52-year-old, a former member of the Mexican Mafia, told FBI agents he attacked Chauvin on that date as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement.
He also revealed he had been thinking about targeting Chauvin for over a month – and said he would have killed the high-profile inmate had officers not intervened so quickly.
Image: Derek Chauvin during his trial
“Life-saving measures” were performed after the stabbing in the prison library, and Chauvin is “expected to survive”.
Turscak has also been charged with three counts of assault and could face an additional 60 years behind bars if convicted. He had been due to complete his current sentence by 2026.
He had led a faction of the Mexican Mafia in Los Angeles during the late 1990s, and went by the nickname “Stranger”.
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The former gang member later became an FBI informant and recorded conversations with his associates in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence.
Chauvin had been moved to the jail in Tucson, Arizona last August – and at the time, his lawyer had called for him to be kept away from other inmates for his own protection.
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2021: Moment Chauvin was jailed
The disgraced cop was convicted of second-degree murder and violating George Floyd’s civil rights after pressing a knee on his neck for nine-and-a-half minutes outside a store in Minnesota in 2020.
Mr Floyd had been suspected of using a counterfeit $20 (£16) bill, and footage from bystanders captured him telling officers “I can’t breathe”.
His death sparked protests worldwide and a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Los Angeles police are hunting a potential serial killer after three homeless people were shot dead in separate incidents.
The murders took place over a few days – between 26 and 29 November – and the city’s mayor warned rough sleepers on Friday: “Try not to be alone tonight.”
CCTV has been released of the suspect, who’s described as male and probably wearing a hoodie; as well as a dark-coloured vehicle he might be using.
Image: Pic: LAPD
LA police chief Michel Moore said a special task force had been set up “to uncover the identity of a potential serial killer preying on the most vulnerable in our community”.
The murders share similarities: all three happened in the early hours and all suspects were homeless and alone.
Mr Moore said all were shot as they were sleeping or preparing to bed down for the night.
The Los Angeles Times named them as Jose Bolanos, 37, Mark Diggs, 62, and a 52-year-old man who’s yet to be named.
Mayor Karen Bass said she had met with the housing department and homeless service and that they are doing “all we can to make shelter and services available”.
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“Our message to our unhoused community is clear – try not to be alone tonight,” she said.
The mayor added: “To the many Angelenos who have friends or family who are unhoused, please let them know the danger that exists.”
Republican congressman George Santos has been expelled from the House of Representatives after a report found “overwhelming evidence” he misused campaign donations.
Mr Santos was ousted 311-114 in a bipartisan vote – only the sixth time a member has been kicked out of the House since it was founded in 1789.
Two-thirds of members must support the move – but an excoriating report by the House ethics committee that accused him of breaking federal law appeared to seal his fate.
The 35-year-old led his own defence on the floor of the House and said he would “not stand by quietly”.
Speaking the evening before the vote, he said: “The people of the Third District of New York sent me here. If they want me out, you’re going to have to go silence those people and go take the hard vote.”
Mr Santos argued it would set a precedent that would make expulsions more common.
Three previous cases involved disloyalty to the Union during the American Civil War, the remaining two were after politicians were convicted of federal crimes.
A congressional investigation found he charged his campaign account nearly $4,000 (£3,151) for spa treatments, including Botox.
He also spent more than $4,000 at designer store Hermes and made “smaller purchases” from the OnlyFans site – best known for sexual content.
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Image: Protesters had been calling for Mr Santos to be expelled
As the outcome of Friday’s vote became clear, Mr Santos put his coat over his shoulders, shook hands with some members who voted against his expulsion and exited the chamber.
The House Speaker solemnly instructed a clerk to inform New York’s governor that his seat was now vacant.
Mr Santos was in his first term and had been previously feted as an exciting prospect after he flipped a district from the Democrats in November 2022.
But the committee launched a probe in March after reports he lied about having Jewish ancestry and his grandparents fleeing the Nazis, working at elite investment bank Goldman Sachs, and his college degree.
It lasted eight months and found “overwhelming evidence” of law-breaking – and Mr Santos has now admitted making up much of his biography.
Image: Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries was one of many supporting the expulsion. Pic: AP
The US attorney’s office indicted him in May, accusing him of cheating donors, laundering campaign funds for his own personal use, and lying to Congress.
It alleged he stole donors’ identities and used their credit cards to make tens of thousands in authorised charges.
Mr Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his trial is scheduled for September 2024.
“Mr Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud on his constituents and the American people,” said Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the ethics committee.
The last person to be kicked out of the House was Democrat James Traficant over a criminal corruption conviction in 2002.
New York state governor Kathy Hochul now has 10 days to call a special election for Mr Santos’s seat.