Donald Trump says he feels ‘badly’ for royals after Andrew stripped of titles over Epstein row
Donald Trump has said he feels “badly” for the Royal Family after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his titles – as it emerged he could also be stripped of his honorary rank of vice admiral.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, the US president was asked about his thoughts on the King’s decision to strip his brother of his peerages in the wake of further disclosures about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the family,” Mr Trump said. “That’s been a tragic situation. It’s too bad. I feel badly for the family.”
The King’s brother was stripped of his prince and Duke of York titles by the monarch over his links to Epstein on Thursday.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Government ‘looking to remove’ Andrew’s final remaining rank
He lost his last remaining royal titles and privileges following the posthumous publication of a memoir by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims.
She had accused Andrew of sexual assault and sued him in August 2021. The case was settled outside court for a sum believed to have been around £12m.
Andrew has denied allegations of sexual assault made by Ms Giuffre, and has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What’s in the Andrew-Epstein email exchange?
Ms Giuffre, who took her own life earlier this year, claimed that – as a teenager – she had sex with Andrew on three occasions after being trafficked by billionaire paedophile Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Andrew has always denied the allegations.
Ms Giuffre’s family hailed the King’s decision to remove Andrew’s titles, saying: “An ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.”
Mr Trump has also come under pressure over his ties to Epstein. After the financier’s death in 2019, the US president downplayed their relationship and said he had “no idea” about Epstein’s crimes.
Read more: All we know about Trump and Epstein’s ‘friendship’
Donald Trump was asked about Andrew losing his titles while on Air Force One. Pic: AP
Andrew could lose vice admiral rank – Healey
It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that the former prince could be stripped of his honorary rank of vice admiral
Andrew was made a vice admiral on his 55th birthday in 2015 and retained the rank even after giving up his other military positions in 2022.
He had a career spanning more than 20 years in the Royal Navy, and served in the Falklands War.
Mr Healey told Sky News: “We’ve seen Andrew surrender the military positions that he’s had and we’re looking now at the one remaining position he has, which is the honorary vice admiral position and, we’ve got a process underway for that.”
Asked what that process is, he said: “We’re being guided by the King and we’re now looking to remove.”
Pic: Reuters
Mr Healey was also asked if the government would legislate to remove Andrew from the line of succession.
He said that is a “matter for the King” but his personal view is “it’s neither here nor there” as Andrew has lost all other of his royal titles.
Meanwhile, Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative Party chairman, told Trevor Phillips: “Andrew’s 8th in line to succession of the monarchy.
“Parliament’s got many better things to do than to legislate for something that will never happen.”
Now simply known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor after losing his titles, he will move from Royal Lodge to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk – with his future accommodation to be privately funded by the monarch.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Could Andrew face US Congress?
Pressure is now building on Andrew to give evidence before a powerful US Congressional committee.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating the Epstein affair, and several of its members have invited Andrew to come and give evidence, presenting it as an opportunity to clear his name.
Royal biographer Andrew Morton said he believes there “are more revelations to come” about Epstein from the committee.
He told Sky News: “Given the fact that Andrew hasn’t been fully comprehensive in his admissions and emails have emerged which go further than his Newsnight interview, I think that will be the fear inside the palace.”
Read more from Sky News:
Passenger tells of panic during train knife attack
Can William drag attention away from Andrew during Brazil visit?
Two Louvre heist suspects ‘convicted over theft in 2015’
In a 2019 interview with Newsnight, Andrew claimed that he cut off contact with Epstein in 2010 following his release from jail for prostituting minors.
However, emails released since suggest they stayed in touch for longer.
The man accused of killing right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has appeared in person at court for the first time.
Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, is charged with aggravated murder in relation to the shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.
Charlie Kirk pictured in December 2024. Pic: Reuters
Video of the incident showed Kirk, 31, and a staunch ally of Donald Trump, reaching up with his right hand after a gunshot was heard as blood came out from the left side of his neck. He died shortly after.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How the Charlie Kirk shooting unfolded
On Wednesday’s appearance at Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Robinson arrived in court with restraints on his wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks.
Read more: What we can learn about suspect from charging document
According to the Associated Press, he smiled at family members sitting in the front row of the courtroom, where his mother teared up and wiped her eyes with a tissue.
He made previous court appearances via video or audio feed from jail.
Pic: AP
The shooting happened during Kirk’s “prove me wrong” series, which saw the father of two visit campuses and debate contentious subjects; in this case, he was discussing mass shootings.
Prosecutors say the bullet which struck Kirk’s neck “passed closely to several other individuals”, including the person questioning him as part of the event.
President Trump comforts Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika at his memorial service in Arizona in September. Pic: Reuters
A charging document about Robinson from September includes incriminating texts sent between the alleged shooter and his roommate after Kirk’s death.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: The real reason for Trump’s Venezuela exploits
FBI release Luigi Mangione ‘to-do list’ before alleged assassination
Judge Tony Graf also heard arguments on Wednesday about whether cameras and media should be allowed in the courtroom, with Robinson’s lawyers and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office asking for them to be banned.
Mr Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has called for full transparency and said “we deserve to have cameras in there”.
The judge has already made allowances to protect Robinson’s presumption of innocence before a trial, agreeing that the case has drawn “extraordinary” public attention
US
US won’t ‘stand by and watch sanctioned vessels’, warns White House after tanker seized off Venezuela
The US will not “stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas”, the White House has warned, after American forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future ship seizures, but said the US would continue to follow Donald Trump‘s sanction policies.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefing the media. Pic: Reuters
The US is gearing up to intercept more ships, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One source said several more sanctioned tankers had been identified by the US for potential seizure.
Two of the people said the US Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the seizures for months.
American forces were monitoring vessels in Venezuelan ports and waiting for them to sail into international waters before taking action, one source added.
It comes after a crude oil tanker, named Skipper, on Wednesday was stormed by US forces executing a seizure warrant.
The ship left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between 4 and 5 December after loading about 1.1 million barrels of oil, according to satellite information analysed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
A still from a video of US forces seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker, posted by Pam Bondi. Pic: X/@AGPamBondi
The real reason for Donald Trump’s Venezuela exploits
Donald Trump wants you to know that there is one leading reason why he is bearing down militarily on Venezuela: drugs.
It is, he has said repeatedly, that country’s part in the production and smuggling of illegal narcotics into America that lies behind the ratcheting up of forces in the Caribbean in recent weeks. But what if there’s something else going on here too? What if this is really all about oil?
In one respect this is clearly preposterous. After all, the United States is, by a country mile, the world’s biggest oil producer. Venezuela is a comparative minnow these days, the 21st biggest producer in the world, its output having been depressed under the Chavez and then Maduro regimes. Why should America care about Venezuelan oil?
For the answer, one needs to spend a moment – strange as this will sound – contemplating the chemistry of oil…
US attorney general Pam Bondi said on X, formerly Twitter, that the ship was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations,” she added.
Ms Leavitt said that “the United States does intend to get the oil” that was onboard the vessel.
The government in Caracas, led by President Nicolas Maduro, branded the ship’s seizure a “blatant theft” and an “act of international piracy”.
Read more:
Analysis: Is this what the beginning of a war looks like?
US-Venezuela crisis explained
Why tanker seized by US was ‘spoofing’ its location
The US has been ramping up the pressure on Mr Maduro and is reportedly considering trying to oust him. It has piled on sanctions, carried out a military build-up in the southern Caribbean, and launched attacks on suspected drug vessels from Venezuela.
Now America has issued new sanctions targeting Franqui Flores, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores – three nephews of Mr Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores – as well as on six crude oil tankers and six shipping companies linked to them.
Skipper. Credit: TankerTrackers
By seizing oil tankers, the US is threatening Mr Maduro’s government’s main revenue source – oil exports.
The sources said the US was focusing on what’s been called the shadow fleet – tankers transporting sanctioned oil to China, the biggest buyer of crude from Venezuela and Iran.
They said one shipper had already temporarily suspended three voyages transporting six million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.
“The cargoes were just loaded and were about to start sailing to Asia,” a source said.
“Now the voyages are cancelled and tankers are waiting off the Venezuelan coast as it’s safer to do that.”
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024