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In a stroke of legal coincidence, Prince Harry will be the subject of a court case in America on the same day he is due to appear in London’s High Court.

Lawyers are due in a federal courtroom in Washington DC to demand the US government release the Duke of Sussex’s US visa application form, a move which could result in his removal from the country.

The case hinges on how the Duke of Sussex answered questions about drug-taking on his US visa form when he applied for a visa allowing him to move to America in March 2020.

An American conservative political research group, the Heritage Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against America’s Department for Homeland Security (DHS) to establish if the correct rules were followed in granting the duke his visa.

In his Netflix series and in his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry admitted to having used cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms.

Under US law, admission of, or evidence of past drug use, can be grounds to reject a visa application.

Lawyers for the Heritage Foundation point to two key questions in the US DS160 visa form.

The first asks: “Have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?”

The second asks: “Have you ever violated, or engaged in a conspiracy to violate, any law relating to controlled substances?”

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Prince Harry accused of wasting High Court’s time
Analysis: Prince Harry has score to settle in High Court appearance

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US court to hear challenge over Prince Harry’s visa

‘There’s a real serious question as to whether or not he should have been admitted’

Speaking to Sky News ahead of the court hearing, the counsel for the Heritage Foundation, Sam Dewey said: “The government has taken the position that ‘there’s nothing to see here’.

“We’ve taken the position that no, if you look through all the details of his admissions, you look at the drug laws, you look at the laws on admissions, there’s a real serious question as to whether or not he should have been admitted.”

He continued: “The alternative, if he didn’t disclose the drug use – then there’s a very serious question as to whether or not proceedings should have begun against him for that.”

Speaking on behalf of his client, Mr Dewey said the Heritage Foundation’s case was overwhelmingly in the public interest and based on a wider suspicion that the DHS is not acting according to procedure when granting visas.

Why is an American think-tank concerning itself with the visa application of a British royal?

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank which, on many issues, holds the Biden administration to account.

One strand of that has been to question the work of the DHS.

It has written plenty of papers on the DHS’s work including on the issues of visas and immigration.

Prince Harry has provided the foundation with a perfect case study with which it hopes to argue that the DHS is not following procedure.

By admitting publicly that he has taken drugs, and that he found them to be a helpful “coping mechanism”, the prince has allowed them to question why he was granted a visa.

They want the process through which he applied for and was granted a visa to unsealed “in the public interest”.

The US government has been accused of applying double standards and turning a blind eye on visa applications before now.

But the think tank has also published its own critiques of the prince.

Last month, Nile Gardner, the foundation’s director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom, wrote: “The Harry and Meghan saga is a modern-day tragedy, a tale of narcissism, hubris and outright greed.

“It’s a sad demise for a once-loved couple who have spectacularly burned bridges on both sides of the Atlantic while pursuing a disastrous vendetta.”

In Prince Harry, the plaintiffs in this case have found a man who fits their motivation politically and beyond.

Lawyers point to other celebrities who had visas denied for previous drug use

Prince Harry’s visa application is the most recent and most high-profile example of the process being called into question.

Mr Dewey said: “We view it as a very serious question – why he’s let in, no problem, given everything that we know [about his drug use] which we’ve explained in detail, and others aren’t let in.”

As part of the evidence for the case, Heritage Foundation lawyers point to other celebrities including the celebrity chef Nigella Lawson and musician Pete Doherty who have in the past been denied visas, or had the process delayed, for previous drug use.

In 2010, Doherty was allowed to fly to the US and arrived at JFK airport in New York before he was sent back home on the next flight. Doherty has a string of drug convictions.

In 2013, Lawson confessed in her divorce court proceedings that she had taken cocaine and marijuana. The following year she was prevented from boarding a flight to Los Angeles, California. After a long process, she was eventually granted a visa.

 Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle The Duchess of Sussex 
Pic:AP
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Pic: AP

Judge will rule on whether it is in public interest to release prince’s application form

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, said: “Did DHS in fact look the other way, play favourites, or fail to appropriately respond to any potential false statements by Prince Harry?”

The hearing could last weeks.

It will begin with a ruling by the judge as to whether the US Customs and Border Protection Agency must accelerate its work to determine what records they hold of the visa application.

Ultimately the judge must rule on whether it is in the public interest to release the prince’s application form, or parts of it.

The public will then find out if he either lied and claimed he had never taken drugs, or he admitted taking them and the US government allowed him in anyway.

The Prince’s spokesperson has not responded to Sky News’s request for comment.

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Powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake causes tsunami in Russia’s Far East – with warnings issued for Japan, Hawaii and Alaska

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Powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake causes tsunami in Russia's Far East - with warnings issued for Japan, Hawaii and Alaska

A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake has struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, causing a tsunami.

A tsunami of up to four metres (13 feet) was recorded in Kamchatka Peninsula, leading to evacuations and damaging buildings, officials said.

Tsunami warnings have been issued for Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and parts of Alaska in the US.

The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management in Hawaii has called for the evacuation of some coastal areas, writing on X: “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected.”

The first waves in Hawaii are expected to hit at 7pm local time (6am UK time).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has said waves of one to three meters (three to 10 feet) above tide level were possible along some coastal areas of Hawaii, Chile, Japan and the Solomon Islands.

Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov had earlier said: “Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors.”

Follow latest: Tsunami live updates

Several people in the region sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister told Russia’s Tass state news agency.

“Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Mr Melnikov said.

Russia’s Tass news agency reported from the biggest city nearby, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, that many people ran out into the street, while cabinets toppled inside homes, mirrors were broken, cars swayed on roads and balconies on buildings shook noticeably.

Power outages and mobile phone service failures were also reported in the capital of the Kamchatka region.

The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko.

He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.

A regional branch of Russia’s geophysical service has said that “significant, noticeable” aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 7.5 after expected to continue for at least another month.

Japan issued a tsunami warning, saying it expects waves as high as three metres to arrive along large coastal areas along the Pacific Ocean.

Waves off the coast of the Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan after the tsunami warning was issued. Pic: AP
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Waves off the coast of the Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan after the tsunami warning was issued. Pic: AP

It has ordered the evacuation of some areas.

The National Tsunami Warning Center, based in Alaska, issued a tsunami warning for parts of the Alaska Aleutian Islands.

A tsunami warning also was extended to the US state of Hawaii, with the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying a tsunami from the quake had been generated that could cause damage along the coastlines of all the Hawaiian islands.

A tsunami “watch” was issued for portions of the West Coast, including California, Oregon, and Washington.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred about 125 km (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay. It revised the magnitude up twice from 8.0 and 8.7 to 8.8 earlier.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s disaster management agency has warned that the country’s coastal areas could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore”.

In a national advisory alert, Civil Defence New Zealand said there was no immediate need to evacuate but said citizens should stay away from beaches and shore areas.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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Trump claims Epstein ‘stole’ Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago resort

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Trump claims Epstein 'stole' Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago resort

Donald Trump has claimed billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “stole” prominent accuser Virginia Giuffre and other young women from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Ms Giuffre became a household name after she sued Prince Andrew for sexual abuse in August 2021 – saying he had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend Epstein.

Prince Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre but has repeatedly denied the claims and has not been charged with any criminal offences.

Mr Trump made his remarks about Ms Giuffre as his administration has faced growing pressure in recent weeks, including from within his “MAGA” base, to release files related to Epstein after he promised to do so during his 2024 presidential campaign.

The US president was speaking to reporters on Tuesday when he was asked about comments he made over the weekend about a falling-out with Epstein over employees taken from his business.

“He took people that worked for me. And I told him, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it,” Mr Trump told reporters while on board Air Force One as he returned to the US from Scotland.

“I said, ‘Stay the hell out of here’,” the US president added.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts in 2001. Pic: Shutterstock 

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London, Britain on March 13 2001

2001
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Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre in 2001. Pic: Shutterstock

Pressed about whether any of the employees he referred to were young women, Mr Trump said many of them worked in the spa at Mar-a-Lago.

“The answer is yes, they were in the spa,” he said. “I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa.’ … And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again.”

Asked if Ms Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, the US president replied: “I think she worked at the spa… I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her, and by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever.”

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Trump dismisses Epstein ‘witch hunt’

The White House said in a statement last week that Mr Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because he was acting like a “creep”.

Epstein took his own life in a Manhattan prison cell in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

On Tuesday, lawyer’s for his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for recruiting young girls for the financier, said that they are open to her answering more questions from US Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution.

However a spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, which requested the interview with Maxwell, said the panel would not consider granting the immunity she requested.

Undated picture of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: US Department of Justice
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Undated picture of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: US Department of Justice

The former British socialite was interviewed inside a Florida courthouse by US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week.

Officials have not publicly disclosed what she said.

Mr Blanche had earlier said that Maxwell would be interviewed because of Mr Trump’s directive to gather and release any credible evidence about others who may have committed crimes in relation to the Epstein case.

Separately, Maxwell’s lawyers have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she did not receive a fair trial.

They also say that one way she would testify “openly and honestly, in public”, is in the event of a pardon by Mr Trump, who has told reporters that such a move is within his rights but that he has not been not asked to make it.

File pic: AP
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Virginia Giuffre in 2019. File pic: AP

What had Ms Giuffre said about Mar-a-Lago?

Ms Giuffre, who took her own life in April, claimed Maxwell spotted her while she was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago when she was a teenager in 2000.

She added that Maxwell hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to sexual abuse.

She accused Epstein of pressuring her into having sex with powerful men.

Why is the Epstein case such a problem for Trump?

Rumours have circulated since Epstein’s death about who he may have supplied underage girls to and who visited his private island.

Some of those rumours quickly spiralled into conspiracy theories, which Mr Trump fanned the flames of during his campaign for a second term.

Mr Trump promised to release more Epstein files to the public if he was elected president for a second time – but is now facing a backlash from his voter base after carrying out a complete U-turn on the move.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks judge to release him on $50m bond as he awaits sentencing

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs asks judge to release him on m bond as he awaits sentencing

Disgraced hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has asked a judge to release him on a $50m bond as he waits to be sentenced for prostitution-related offences.

Combs’s lawyer has argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn are dangerous and noted that others convicted of similar offences were typically released before sentencing.

“Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct,” Marc Agnifilo said in a court filing on Tuesday.

“In fact, he may be the only person currently in a United States jail for being any sort of John, and certainly the only person in jail for hiring adult male escorts for him and his girlfriend.”

A “John” in the US is a slang term for somebody who hires a prostitute.

A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors have previously insisted he remains a flight risk and should therefore not be granted bail.

The 55-year-old, one of the most influential hip-hop producers of all time, faces up to a decade in prison after he was convicted earlier this month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

The charges relate to how he flew people around the US, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, for sexual encounters.

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Sean "Diddy" Combs reacts after verdicts are read of the five counts against him, during Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City, New
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Combs knelt at his chair and appeared to pray after the verdicts

Combs was cleared of three more serious charges – two for sex trafficking and one for racketeering conspiracy – following his landmark trial in New York.

A conviction on one of those charges could have put him in prison for life.

Immediately after he was acquitted of those charges on 2 July, Mr Agnifilo had asked that Combs be released on bond.

But Judge Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Combs at the time had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community”.

Combs is the latest celebrity inmate to be locked up at MDC Brooklyn, the only federal jail in New York City, joining a list that includes R Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

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