Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin makes journey through Scotland
Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin makes journey through Scotland
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Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin makes journey through Scotland
- The queen’s coffin will take a circuitous journey back to London
- On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London
LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin is passing through the rugged Scottish countryside Sunday on a final journey from her beloved summer estate Balmoral Castle to London, with mourners quietly lining roads and some tossing flowers to honor the monarch who died after 70 years on the throne.
The hearse drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday, for a six-hour trip through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh. The late queen’s coffin was draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland and topped with a wreath made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, one of the queen’s favorites.
“A sad and poignant moment as Her Majesty, The Queen leaves her beloved Balmoral for the final time,” the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted. “Today, as she makes her journey to Edinburgh, Scotland will pay tribute to an extraordinary woman.”
Crowds lined parts of the route as the nation mourns its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. In the Scottish village of Ballater, where residents regard the royal family as neighbors, hundreds of people watched in silence and some threw flowers in front of the hearse as it passed.
“She meant such a lot to people in this area. People were crying, it was amazing to see,” said Victoria Pacheco, a guest house manager.
In each town and village the cars drove through, they were met with similar muted scenes of respect. People stood mostly in silence; some clapped politely, others pointed their phone cameras at the passing cars.
Before reaching the Scottish capital, the cortege is traveling down what is effectively a royal memory lane — passing through locations laden with House of Windsor history including Dyce, where in 1975 the queen formally opened the UK’s first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife near St. Andrews University, where her grandson William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.
Sunday’s solemn drive through Scotland comes a day after the queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch — King Charles III — at a pomp-filled accession ceremony steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism.
“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me,” Charles said as he took on the duties of monarch.
He will be proclaimed king in other nations of the United Kingdom — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — and in towns across the country Sunday. Earlier, proclamations were held in other parts of the Commonwealth — the group of former British Empire colonies — including Australia and New Zealand.
In the New Zealand capital, Wellington, the British monarch’s representative, Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, said: “On behalf of all New Zealanders, I extend to King Charles our loyalty and support and wishes for a long and happy reign.”
Even as he mourned his late mother, Charles was getting down to work. He was meeting at Buckingham Palace with the secretary-general and other representatives of the Commonwealth, a group of nations that grapples with affection for the queen and lingering bitterness over their own colonial legacies, ranging from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had started laying the groundwork for an Australian republic after elections in May, said Sunday that now was the time not for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen.
India, a former British colony, observed a day of state mourning, with flags lowered to half-staff on all government buildings throughout the country.
Amid the grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance Saturday.
The queen’s coffin will take a circuitous journey back to the capital. On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London. The coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.
In Ballater, the Rev. David Barr said locals consider the royals as “neighbors” and try to treat them as locals when they spend summers in the Scottish Highlands.
“When she comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside,” he said. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving great-gran — and aunty — and be normal.”
Elizabeth Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse carrying the queen’s coffin passed through Ballater.
“It was very emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of the queen,” she said. “She certainly gave service to this country even up until a few days before her death.”
Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin makes journey through Scotland
Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin makes journey through Scotland
- The queen’s coffin will take a circuitous journey back to London
- On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London
LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin is passing through the rugged Scottish countryside Sunday on a final journey from her beloved summer estate Balmoral Castle to London, with mourners quietly lining roads and some tossing flowers to honor the monarch who died after 70 years on the throne.
The hearse drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday, for a six-hour trip through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh. The late queen’s coffin was draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland and topped with a wreath made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, one of the queen’s favorites.
“A sad and poignant moment as Her Majesty, The Queen leaves her beloved Balmoral for the final time,” the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted. “Today, as she makes her journey to Edinburgh, Scotland will pay tribute to an extraordinary woman.”
Crowds lined parts of the route as the nation mourns its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. In the Scottish village of Ballater, where residents regard the royal family as neighbors, hundreds of people watched in silence and some threw flowers in front of the hearse as it passed.
“She meant such a lot to people in this area. People were crying, it was amazing to see,” said Victoria Pacheco, a guest house manager.
In each town and village the cars drove through, they were met with similar muted scenes of respect. People stood mostly in silence; some clapped politely, others pointed their phone cameras at the passing cars.
Before reaching the Scottish capital, the cortege is traveling down what is effectively a royal memory lane — passing through locations laden with House of Windsor history including Dyce, where in 1975 the queen formally opened the UK’s first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife near St. Andrews University, where her grandson William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.
Sunday’s solemn drive through Scotland comes a day after the queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch — King Charles III — at a pomp-filled accession ceremony steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism.
“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me,” Charles said as he took on the duties of monarch.
He will be proclaimed king in other nations of the United Kingdom — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — and in towns across the country Sunday. Earlier, proclamations were held in other parts of the Commonwealth — the group of former British Empire colonies — including Australia and New Zealand.
In the New Zealand capital, Wellington, the British monarch’s representative, Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, said: “On behalf of all New Zealanders, I extend to King Charles our loyalty and support and wishes for a long and happy reign.”
Even as he mourned his late mother, Charles was getting down to work. He was meeting at Buckingham Palace with the secretary-general and other representatives of the Commonwealth, a group of nations that grapples with affection for the queen and lingering bitterness over their own colonial legacies, ranging from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had started laying the groundwork for an Australian republic after elections in May, said Sunday that now was the time not for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen.
India, a former British colony, observed a day of state mourning, with flags lowered to half-staff on all government buildings throughout the country.
Amid the grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance Saturday.
The queen’s coffin will take a circuitous journey back to the capital. On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London. The coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.
In Ballater, the Rev. David Barr said locals consider the royals as “neighbors” and try to treat them as locals when they spend summers in the Scottish Highlands.
“When she comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside,” he said. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving great-gran — and aunty — and be normal.”
Elizabeth Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse carrying the queen’s coffin passed through Ballater.
“It was very emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of the queen,” she said. “She certainly gave service to this country even up until a few days before her death.”
India observes day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II
- Flags atop Indian Parliament, President House, Red Fort and other government offices in New Delhi were lowered
- Official entertainment events were also canceled “as a mark of respect to” the queen
NEW DELHI: India on Sunday observed a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II with flags lowered to half-staff on all government buildings.
Official entertainment events were also canceled “as a mark of respect to the departed dignitary,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
Flags atop Indian Parliament, President House, Red Fort and other government offices in New Delhi were lowered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called Elizabeth “a stalwart of our times.”
Britain ended two centuries of colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
Turkey says Greek Coast Guard fires on cargo ship in Aegean
- There were no casualties in the shooting 11 nautical miles (13 miles) southwest of the Turkish island of Bozcaada
- Coast Guard vessels, two Turkish Coast Guard ships went to the area and the Greek boats left
ISTANBUL: Greek Coast Guard ships opened fire on a cargo vessel sailing in international waters in the Aegean Sea, the Turkish Coast Guard said, escalating tensions between the regional rivals that have mounted in recent weeks.
There were no casualties in the shooting 11 nautical miles (13 miles) southwest of the Turkish island of Bozcaada on Saturday, the Turkish statement said. It added that after “harassment fire” from two Greek Coast Guard vessels, two Turkish Coast Guard ships went to the area and the Greek boats left.
Calls to the Greek Embassy in Ankara went unanswered Sunday, and it wasn’t clear why the gunfire occurred.
The neighboring countries have been embroiled in disputes for decades and frictions have ratcheted up in recent weeks, with both sides alleging airspace violations. Greek officials have raised concerns about another outbreak of conflict in Europe, following Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Turkey says Greece is breaking international agreements by keeping a military presence on islands close to Turkey’s Aegean coastline. It also has accused Greek air defenses of locking on to Turkish fighter jets during NATO exercises over the eastern Mediterranean.
Greece says it needs to defend its eastern islands — including tourist hotspots Rhodes and Kos, which are much closer to Turkey than to the Greek mainland — against its larger and militarily stronger neighbor.
Video footage from Saturday purportedly shows a Greek Coast Guard ship alongside the Comoros-flagged ship Anatolian as the sound of about a dozen gunshots are heard. A crew member speaks in Turkish, saying they are being attacked by the Greek Coast Guard.
The video, which was released by the Turkish Coast Guard and seems to have been filmed on a cellphone, shows what appears to be a bullet hole in a window and in the ceiling of the cargo ship’s bridge.
The Turkish statement said the gunfire was “in disregard of the rules of international law.” The 18 crew of the Anatolian consisted of six Egyptians, four Somalis, five Azerbaijanis and three Turks.
A Turkish prosecutor ordered an investigation. The country also has protested to Greek authorities, with Ankara demanding a swift investigation and explanation.
The Anatolian was anchored Sunday in the Dardanelles Strait off the Turkish coast, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
This week, the Greek government wrote letters to NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, asking them to formally condemn increasingly aggressive talk by Turkish officials and suggesting that tensions could escalate into open conflict.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said the behavior of Turkey — also a NATO member — risked “a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our continent,” referring to the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine pushes Russia into retreat in counteroffensive
- Ukrainian forces were working to wrest control of towns and villages around the strategic hub of Izyum
- Ukraine’s quick action to reclaim Russia-occupied areas in Kharkiv forced Moscow to pull back troops to the further south
KYIV: Ukrainian forces on Sunday pushed its counteroffensive in the country’s east, exploiting quick gains they made in a week of fighting that has sharply changed the course of the conflict.
Ukraine’s quick action to reclaim Russia-occupied areas in the northeastern Kharkiv region forced Moscow to withdraw its troops to prevent them from being surrounded and leave behind significant numbers of weapons and munitions in a hasty retreat as the war marked 200 days on Sunday.
The jubilant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mocked the Russians in a video address late Saturday, saying that “the Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back.”
The Russians’ pullback marked the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war.
In an awkward attempt to save face, the Russian Defense Ministry said the troops’ withdrawal from Izyum and other areas in the Kharkiv region was intended to strengthen Russian forces in the neighboring Donetsk region to the south.
The claim sounded similar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year when they failed to take the capital.
The group of Russian forces around Izyum has been key for Moscow’s effort to capture the Donetsk region, and their pullback will now dramatically weaken the Russian capability to press its offensive there.
The retreat drew angry comments from Russian military bloggers, who bemoaned it as a major defeat and urged the Kremlin to respond by stepping up war efforts. Many scathingly criticized Russian authorities for continuing with fireworks and other lavish festivities in Moscow that marked a city holiday on Saturday despite the debacle in Ukraine.
Just as the Russian forces were hastily pulling back from Izyum under Ukrainian fire, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening of a huge observation wheel at a Moscow park, a new transport link and a sports arena.
The action underlined the Kremlin’s effort to continue pretending that the war it calls a “special military operation” was going according to plan without affecting the situation in the country.
In a sign of potential rift in the Russian leadership, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, said that the retreat from the Kharkiv region resulted from the Russian military leadership’s blunders.
“They have made mistakes and I think they will draw the necessary conclusions,” Kadyrov said. “If they don’t make changes in the strategy of conducting the special military operation in the next day or two, I will be forced to contact the leadership of the Defense Ministry and the leadership of the country to explain the real situation on the ground.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in televised comments Saturday that the Russians have been cut off from supply lines and predicted more gains.
“It will be like an avalanche,” he said, predicting a Russian fallback. “One line of defense will shake, and it will fall.”
Despite Ukraine’s gains, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of NATO warned Friday that the war would likely drag on for months. Blinken said the conflict was entering a critical period and urged Ukraine’s Western backers to keep up their support through what could be a difficult winter.
In another major development Sunday, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, allowing engineers to shut down its last operational reactor in an attempt to avoid a radiation disaster as fighting rages in the area.
For several previous days, the plant was operating in “island mode” with just one of its six-reactors working to power cooling systems and other crucial equipment.
Last reactor at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant stopped
- The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected from the grid last week amid intense fighting
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine’s atomic power operator said Sunday that the last reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been shut down after the plant was reconnected to the electricity grid.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected from the grid last week after all its power lines were disconnected as a result of fighting in the area, and was operating in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining reactor in operation.
Nuclear operator Energoatom said that one of the power lines was restored late Saturday, allowing plant operators to shut down the last reactor.
The company said the risk remains high that outside power is cut again, in which case the plant would have to fire up emergency diesel generators to keep the reactors cool and prevent a nuclear meltdown. The company’s chief told The Associated Press on Thursday that the plant only has diesel fuel for 10 days.
The plant, one of the 10 biggest atomic power stations in the world, has been occupied by Russian forces since the early stages of the war. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for shelling around the plant that has damaged the power lines connecting it to the grid.
In a statement early Sunday, Energoatom urged Russian forces to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant and allow for the creation of a “demilitarized zone” around it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog which has two experts at the plant, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. Its director has called for a safe zone around the plant to avert a disaster.
Huge quake hits Papua New Guinea, extent of damage unclear
- There were reports of damage to buildings but the extent is still unknown
- A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation’s central region killed at least 125 people
JAKARTA/WELLINGTON: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit off eastern Papua New Guinea on Sunday, with locals reporting damage to buildings near the town of Madang and further inland.
The US Geological Survey, which reported the quake, issued a tsunami warning but subsequently said the threat “has now passed.”
It did, however, note that there could still be “minor sea level fluctuations in some coastal areas.”
Locals in Madang said they felt “very strong shaking.” There were reports of damage to buildings.
The quake struck at a depth of 61 kilometers (38 miles), about 67 kilometers from the highland town of Kainantu, the USGS said.
The Papua New Guinea quake came an hour after a succession of two earthquakes in the west, in parts of the vast Indonesian archipelago.
The first quake, recorded at 2:10 a.m. local time (UTC+03:00) with a magnitude of 6.1, struck Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the country’s geophysics agency (BMKG) said.
A magnitude 5.3 in the same area 14 minutes later, BMKG reported. Local online media said one person was injured in the head by falling wood.
Renagi Ravu, a geologist, said he was meeting with colleagues at his home in Kainantu when the earthquake struck.
Ravu tried to stand up from his chair but couldn’t maintain his balance and so ended up in a kind of group hug with his colleagues, while plates and cups crashed from his shelves to the ground. His children, ages 9 and 2, had their drinks and breakfast spill over.
The extent of the damage and whether there have been serious injuries or deaths from the quake was not clear in the immediate aftermath in the remote and underdeveloped region.
Ravu said that about 10,000 people live in and around his town of Kainantu, the nearest big town to the quake. He said there are many scattered settlements in the highlands, and tens of thousands of people might have been affected.
On Sunday morning, Ravu was still sorting through the damage to his home, which he said likely included a broken sewer pipe judging from the smell. He said friends elsewhere in Kainantu had messaged him with descriptions of broken pipes and fallen debris, but hadn’t described major building collapses or injuries.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation’s central region killed at least 125 people. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake hit at 9:46 a.m. local time. Initial readings put the quake at a depth of some 50 to 60 kilometers (30 to 40 miles).
NOAA has since advised there is no tsunami threat for the area.
The extent of damage is not yet clear, but the USGS estimates “some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localized.”
Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia.
It sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs.