Entertainment
Prince Andrew says he ‘ceased all contact’ with alleged Chinese spy
Prince Andrew has said he “ceased all contact” with a businessman accused of being a Chinese spy after receiving advice from the government.
In a statement, his office said Prince Andrew had met the man “through official channels” and there was “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
The alleged spy has been banned from the UK following a judgement by the UK’s semi-secret national security court.
The man, known only as H6, was described in court as a “close confidant” of Prince Andrew who had formed an “unusual degree of trust” with the duke.
In 2023, H6 brought an appeal against his initial ban but the decision has been upheld by the court.
Judges were told the businessman was attempting to leverage Prince Andrew’s influence.
The duke’s office said he was “unable to comment further on matters relating to national security”.
His statement did not specify when he ceased contact with the man nor the duration of their communications.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying they do not act for the prince, who is not a working royal.
ANALYSIS: Questions over Prince Andrew’s judgement and finances raised again
China’s embassy in the UK has denied the espionage claim saying “some individuals in the UK are always eager to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories targeting China”.
“Their purpose is to smear China and disrupt normal exchanges between Chinese and British personnel,” a spokesperson for the embassy said.
The former home secretary Suella Braverman banned H6 from the UK in March 2023.
He then brought his case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a court set up to consider appeals against decisions to ban or remove someone from the country on national security or related grounds.
In the published ruling, the judges upheld Braverman’s decision.
The court was told that H6 was invited to Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 2020 and was told he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.
It is not clear how H6 became close to the prince, but in November 2021 police officers stopped and questioned him at the UK border under powers to investigate suspicions of “hostile activity” by a foreign state.
During that stop H6 surrendered a number of electronic devices including a mobile phone.
What officers found on them so concerned the security service MI5, that Braverman used her exceptional powers to ban H6 from the country.
Entertainment
Even before the LA fires, Californians fled for ‘climate havens’
Christina Welch still remembers what the sky looked like the day a wildfire came within 2 miles (3.2 km) of her Santa Rosa, California, home.
It was the Tubbs fire of 2017, the most destructive in California history at the time. Ms Welch’s neighbour woke her in the morning, and told her to grab her belongings and get out. When Ms Welch opened the door, ashes were falling from the sky and smoke filled the air.
Then, in 2019, the Kincade wildfire forced her parents to evacuate for five days.
It was the final push for Ms Welch. After advice from a friend, she packed her belongings and drove across the country to her new hometown: Duluth, Minnesota.
“It was just the culmination of all of it,” the 42-year-old said. “There’s only so many times that I was going to go through every fall of worrying about what is going to set on fire, if I was going to lose a house.”
Ms Welch is one of several people who has left California in recent years because of the frequency of extreme weather, even before the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history killed 28 people this month.
Climate change has made the grasses and shrubs that are fuelling the Los Angeles fires more vulnerable to burning, scientists say.
Climate’s ‘whiplash’ linked to raging LA fires
California is naturally prone to fires, but scientists believe that a warming world is increasing the conditions conducive to longer fire seasons and larger burned areas in the western US.
Just this week, a new, fast-moving wildfire broke out in Los Angeles County, north-west of the city, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate a region already reeling from destruction. Trump plans to visit Southern California on Friday to witness the devastation from the blazes.
Entertainment
Would you make a good Traitor? Take our quiz
The latest series of The Traitors is coming to an end, after weeks of wild accusations, wilder betrayals and Claudia Winkleman’s devious looks-to-camera.
Many of us like to think we could handle the pressures and skullduggery of being a traitor in the remote Scottish castle. But could you really make it to the end undetected?
Work through our scenarios – from sitting at the roundtable with Claudia to rowing across an icy loch – to find out if you’ve got what it takes to be a treacherous mastermind, or whether you are far too faithful for that.
Quiz compiled by: Steven McIntosh, Helen Bushby, Yasmin Rufo, Rosemary McCabe, Jonathan Holmes
Entertainment
Musical about trans drug boss leads Oscar nominations
Netflix musical Emilia Pérez leads this year’s Oscars nominations, with Wicked also among the top contenders.
Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, has 13 nominations in total – although one of its stars, Selena Gomez, missed out.
Wicked received 10 nominations – including nods for British actress Cynthia Erivo and her co-star Ariana Grande.
Three-and-a-half-hour epic The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, also has 10 nominations, while Demi Moore has the first Oscar nomination of her career
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