More stories

  • in

    Digested week: A beer with Mike Pence to figure out what his deal is? Possibly …

    MondayIn a reversal of the who-would-you-most-like-to-have-a-drink-with test, candidates declaring for the Republican presidential race this week presented as so singularly unappetising as to beg the question who among them would you leave the bar to avoid? Trump is not, weirdly, at the top of this list, since when he cares to use it one knows his charm is considerable. Mike Pence, who declared his candidacy on Monday and remains enduringly weird, would definitely break the top three, although a small part of me would like to take a crack, over a beer, at figuring out what his deal is. The former vice-president and evangelical Christian’s very clenched personality and eagerness to be photographed at the weekend in leathers on a Harley-Davidson, is suggestive of a range of possibilities.Also throwing his hat into the ring this week is Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and, for my money, the least appealing candidate in the current Republican lineup, even taking into account Ron DeSantis. Christie, you may remember, was for a hot minute in 2016 spoken of as a credible centrist Republican before everyone remembered who he was. (My favourite Christie story is the one from 2017 when he was snapped from a news helicopter enjoying a deserted beach with his family during a state-wide shutdown when the beaches were closed.) In the years since, he has flip-flopped between craven appeasement and condemnation of Trump and is now running – hollow laugh – as a moral standard-bearer on the strength of his objection to the events surrounding the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.Other candidates in the race include the requisite comedy multimillionaire who has never held office – in this case, the former pharmaceutical company CEO Vivek Ramaswamy whose manifesto seems to be the single word “anti-woke” – and a lone woman, Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina. Described by the former CNN host Don Lemon earlier this year as a woman who “isn’t in her prime”, Haley, at 51, is among the youngest of the candidates. There are reasons to dislike Haley (“America is not racist”) as strong as any triggered by the rest of the field, but assuredly, that isn’t one of them.TuesdayAs hot takes continue to fly around in the wake of Hannah Gadsby’s “disastrous” (ARTnews), “silly” (New York Times) curated exhibition about Picasso at the Brooklyn Museum, let’s turn instead to Françoise Gilot, whose death at the age of 101 was announced on Tuesday. Gilot was an artist, an icon in her own right and – there’s no avoiding her connection to the man, although it was the source of career-long irritation to her – the only one of Picasso’s lovers ever to walk out on him. I met her a few years ago in her apartment on the Upper West Side where she presented with the kind of fanatical chic only French women of a certain age can pull off. She wasn’t interested in false modesty. “I was considered astonishingly good,” she said of herself as a young artist. And she wasn’t sentimental about the past. “I have to admit,” she told me, “that I was never so much in love with anyone that I could not consider my own plan as interesting.” When I asked if leaving Picasso had been a liberating experience, she looked at me as if I was mad. “No, because I was not a prisoner. I’d been there of my own will and I left of my own will. That’s what I told him once, before I left. I said watch out, because I came when I wanted to, but I will leave when I want. He said, nobody leaves a man like me.” She smiled and the thrill of that moment, 70 years later, disturbed the air in the room. “I said, we’ll see.”WednesdayThe school field trip to Staten Island is cancelled because of air quality in New York, a decision parents bemoan in the morning and revisit at lunchtime when the sky darkens to a Martian glow. The air is nicotine yellow; the sun is an eery orange disc; the cars have their headlights on at midday. While Californians fold their arms and say to New Yorkers “We told you”, people in the city re-mask and shut the windows. Outside my apartment, it smells as if there is a five-alarm fire a block away.The fires burning in Canada cover an area 10 times larger than is usual for this time of year and Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, describes the smoke across the state as “an emergency crisis”, while New Yorkers describe it, variously, as smelling like “a barbecue”, “cigars”, and “9/11”. It smells to me like cigarette smoke, carried 500 miles down wind by an area of low pressure and bringing a forecast to terrify us all.ThursdayThe spectacle of Harry in court this week makes one wince for the gap between what he might hope his appearance will achieve and how things in reality are likely to play out. I don’t mean in terms of judgment, exactly, but as John Crace wrote this week, the court system is an imprecise mechanism for the deliverance of closure and it is more likely to aggravate than soothe your unease. As ever with Harry, one understands that while the Mirror group is the main target of his ire, there is a family dynamic playing out, too. The 38-year-old prince must know how unbearable his father will find the breach of protocol inherent in his appearance in court, not to mention the implied criticism that while the king did nothing, Harry is the only one in the family with the mettle to take on the tabloids. And the corrupt you-asked-for-it logic of justifying the way he was hounded on the basis that he still seeks publicity seems likely to trail him until he retires to Gloucestershire and is never heard of again.FridayDrew Barrymore on the cover of New York magazine this week exhibits a style of celebrity that seems to date back to Lucille Ball. Barrymore, at 48, has a daytime chatshow in the US in which she giggles and sits on her legs and drops her jaw when someone says something mildly diverting, and empathises so busily with her guests that at times she looks in danger of exploding. (This style is described, by the magazine, as “radically intimate” and involves a lot of “manifesting” of “precepts”.) I urge you to look up her recent interview with the actor Melanie Lynskey, during the course of which Barrymore seizes on the alcoholism of Jason Ritter, Lynskey’s husband, with the avidity of a shark happening upon a seal. I would pay good money to see her apply that unruly energy to the field of Republican candidates for president. More

  • in

    Can Harry and Meghan succeed in reintroducing royalty into US politics?

    Can Harry and Meghan succeed in reintroducing royalty into US politics? The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spoken out about paid family leave and the Capitol attack – but is that what Americans want from royal celebrities?Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, appear to have embarked on a new course in recent weeks as they seek to define their lives in America by adding political issues and influence into their established interests of being royal humanitarians embracing US celebrity norms of wealth, fame and talkshows.First it was Meghan, cold-calling two Republican US senators – West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins of Maine – to urge them to support paid family leave provisions in Joe Biden’s languishing Build Back Better legislation.Meghan admits aide gave biography authors information with her knowledgeRead more“She called me on my private line and she introduced herself as the Duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic,” Collins told Politico. Collins added – perhaps a little disappointingly for fans of the royals – that she herself was “more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me” than members of British royalty.Meghan then appeared at a New York Times forum to press the issue. “This is one of those issues that is not red or blue,” she said, underscoring an earlier Paid Leave for All letter in which she stressed that she was “not an elected official, and I’m not a politician”. She was, she wrote, “an engaged citizen and a parent”.The targets of her letter? The Democrat bigwigs Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer. She has also reached out to the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand to offer her help around paid leave campaigning.Her husband, Harry, has also taken his turn, informing a panel at a tech forum last week that he had warned the Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, that “his platform was allowing a coup to be staged” a day before the attack on the Capitol on 6 January by a Trump-supporting mob. By midweek the couple were back on familiar ground, paying tribute to armed forces on Veterans Day and helping to raise awareness of returning veterans’ mental health.For some observers it is a clear effort by the Sussexes to get – at least partially – involved with the politics of the country they are making home. And, given the fractious nature of US politics, that is not an easy path to tread.“They’re trying to rebrand themselves without completely rejecting the royal moniker,” says Arianne Chernock, a professor of history at Boston University and author of The Right to Rule and the Rights of Women: Queen Victoria and the Women’s Movement. “Meghan is adamant that hers is a human rights issue that she as an American can speak to, but the issue that she casts as non-political unfortunately plays out in the US context as a very partisan one.”The process of disentangling from royalty while still benefiting from the insider advantages it confers is also a delicate tightrope. But American fascination with Meghan “is fuelled by her open embrace of her identity and her attempts to connect it to a multiracial, multicultural global population”, says Chernock.After the Oprah sit-down interview in which the pair criticized the royal family and spoke of the racism they had faced, anEconomist/YouGov poll showed that about 40% of American adults overall feel personal sympathy for the couple, and were twice as likely to sympathize with the couple than with the royal family.But such sympathies are not entirely organic. The Sussexes’ quest to define their new lives in the US is plotted out. Last week, a witness statement released by the court of appeal in London that stemmed from a libel case Markle won against the Daily Mail showed that a recent coming-to-America account, Finding Freedom, was not unauthorized, as the couple had claimed, but cooperatively scripted.The revelation led some to wonder where the recent forays into the US political realm are headed.Until now, the US republic’s relationship with foreign royalty, or in this case fringe royalty, has followed relatively clear lines, as framed by the constitution to prevent a society of nobility from being established in the United States.“People use titles all the time in America but they can’t use them for any actual purpose,” says David Hackett Fischer, author Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, a classic study in how four groups – Puritans, Royalist Cavaliers, Quakers and borderland Scots-English – came to shape the culture of the regions they settled.“There aren’t many royalists among my fellow citizens, but they may be intrigued by people with a title,” Fischer says, “and most Americans have absolutely no interest in aristocracy or monarchy and don’t think it should have any standing.”But celebrity is a different matter.“Americans don’t think of celebrity as an order, but celebrate individuals by their interest in them – as film stars, athletes, or whatever they may be, and some because they have a lot of money.”The Sussexes, he says, “are celebrities only in the sense that the tabloids cover them, but that’s about the only thing that flows from their status”.But the relative acceptance within some Democratic circles of Meghan’s political input suggests more than shared causes in a tense political moment. “Rightly or wrongly, she can do things average citizens can’t,” says Bruce Freed at the Center for Political Accountability. “It’s star power. It feeds the ego to get a call from a prominent person.”Certainly Gillibrand appeared impressed. “I could hear how sincere she was about advocacy,” Gillibrand told the 19th website after her chat with the duchess.Still, the couple are fairly far advanced in their royal-to-celebrity transformation.The outgoing New York city mayor, Bill de Blasio, in September gave the couple a tour of the World Trade Center before the Sussexes headed off to another big-stage fundraiser, the Global Citizen Festival, themed to pressure western nations to donate 1bn vaccines to developing nations.As one well-placed Hollywood society power-broker remarks, “why stay in Britain as a walk-on, or a crowd-scene to provide atmosphere, when you can have starring roles in America?”And they certainly have powerful friends easing their way. The couple’s progress in the US has been smoothed by Nicole Avant, President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the Bahamas, a Montecito neighbor and wife of Hollywood’s most powerful executive, the Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos. They may also count on Mellody Hobson, Meghan’s co-panelist last week, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, the chairwoman of Starbucks, and wife of the Star Wars director George Lucas.But some steps are discernibly precarious.Last week, per reports, the couple faced criticism that their lucrative Netflix deal is at odds with the streaming platform’s hit The Crown that will, in its fifth season, depict Harry’s mother during the years of her controversial Panorama interview and subsequent divorce.As yet their Netflix production account reveals little specific direction beyond saying its mission is “making inspirational family programming is also important to us” and “to share impactful content that unlocks action”.All of which points to an effort to fashion a new brand-identity despite the contradictions of complaining about press scrutiny and then going to Hollywood to actively court it. But in many ways, the Sussexes’ attempt to cast their activism within a humanitarian framework is in keeping with all members of the royal family who have made their relevance turn on humanitarian pursuits since the 18th century.“It’s one of the pitches they make for continuing relevance, and one way that they use to justify their power and privilege,” Chernock points out.TopicsPrince HarryMeghan, the Duchess of SussexUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

  • in

    Prince Harry says he warned Twitter boss a day before Capitol riot

    Prince HarryPrince Harry says he warned Twitter boss a day before Capitol riot‘I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. I haven’t heard from him since,’ Harry says01:18Sarah Marsh@sloumarshWed 10 Nov 2021 06.24 ESTLast modified on Wed 10 Nov 2021 08.55 ESTPrince Harry has said he warned Twitter’s boss Jack Dorsey about his platform allowing political unrest a day before the Capitol riot that led to five deaths.The Duke of Sussex made the comments at the RE:WIRED tech forum in the US. He said: “I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before. And then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.”On the day of the 6 January riots, Donald Trump tweeted allegations of vote fraud before a rally in Washington DC. Members of the Proud Boy movement, a rightwing militia, stormed the Capitol to disrupt the official certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the White House race, as part of an attempt to overturn the election result.Harry was speaking via video chat at a session discussing whether social media was contributing to misinformation and online hatred. Dorsey, who is Twitter’s chief executive, has so far not commented.A study released in October by the social media analytics service Bot Sentinel identified 83 accounts on Twitter that it said were responsible for 70% of hateful content and misinformation aimed at Harry and his wife, Meghan.Harry said that “perhaps the most disturbing part of this [study] was the number of British journalists who were interacting with them and amplifying the lies. But they regurgitate these lies as truth.”He said social media companies were not doing enough to stop the spread of misinformation, and the internet was “being defined by hate, division and lies”.He also argued that the word “Megxit”, used by the British press to describe the couple’s decision to quit their royal duties, was misogynistic.Harry said the word was an example of online and media hatred. “Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term ‘Megxit’ was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media. But it began with a troll,” he said. He did not elaborate.Harry and Meghan moved to California last year to lead a more independent life. He has said that part of the reason for their departure was the racist treatment of Meghan, whose mother is black and whose father is white, by the British tabloid media.TopicsPrince HarryTwitterJack DorseyUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

  • in

    Prince Harry warned Twitter about 'coup' before Capitol riot – video

    Prince Harry says he warned Twitter’s boss, Jack Dorsey, that the platform was ‘allowing a coup to be staged’, a day before the Capitol riot on 6 January. Speaking on a panel called the Internet Lie Machine, organised by Wired magazine, Harry says he had been in contact with Dorsey via email, but never received a reply after the storming of the Capitol. 
    He also says the word ‘Megxit’, used to describe his decision to quit royal duties with his wife, Meghan, was a misogynistic term that had been created by a troll

    Prince Harry says ‘Megxit’ is a misogynistic term aimed at his wife Meghan More

  • in

    Harry and Meghan to join Joe Biden at Vax Live concert to increase global vaccination

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will join the US president, Joe Biden, at a concert in Los Angeles aimed at increasing the global vaccination effort.Harry and Meghan are “campaign chairs” of the A-list event, Vax Live. Hosted by Selena Gomez, and organised by Global Citizen, the event, on Saturday 8 May, will feature musical performances by names from the worlds of film and politics, and music performances from stars including Jennifer Lopez, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin and HER.The broadcast special aims to encourage donations to Covax, which is working to provide vaccines for low and middle-income countries.In a statement, the Sussexes said: “Over the past year, our world has experienced pain, loss and struggle – together. Now we need to recover and heal – together. We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer, when everyone, everywhere has equal access to the vaccine.“We must pursue equitable vaccine distribution and, in that, restore faith in our common humanity. The mission couldn’t be more critical or important.”Special guests, including Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel and Sean Penn, will speak from around the world.Biden, along with the US first lady, Jill Biden, and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, will make special appearances through Global Citizen’s partnership with the White House’s We Can Do This initiative, which encourages measures, including mask wearing.Appearances by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Croatian prime minister, Andrej Plenković, are also planned, organisers say.A trailer for Vax Live promised it would feature “big names and an even bigger message”. It will be recorded at SoFi stadium in Los Angeles, and air on 8 May across networks including ABC, CBS, and iHeartMedia radio stations.The announcement comes as there are calls for the US to hand over 60m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to India as part of the global drive to fight the virus. The US announced on Monday that 60m doses would be available to send abroad once the vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Global Citizen calls itself a movement of “engaged citizens who are using their collective voice to end extreme poverty by 2030”. The concert has been described as a call to world leaders to ensure vaccines are accessible for all. More

  • in

    Harry and Meghan call on Americans to register to vote ahead of US election – video

    Play Video

    1:09

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have urged Americans to ‘reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity’ and register to vote in the 2020 US election. 
    In a Time 100 video message, Meghan Markle said: ‘When we vote, our values are put into action and our voices are heard.’
    ‘Your voice is a reminder that you matter,’ she added. ‘Because you do. And you deserve to be heard.’
    The clip has sparked criticism for potentially breaching royal protocol demanding political impartiality
    Harry and Meghan criticised after video urging Americans to vote

    Topics

    Prince Harry

    Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

    US elections 2020 More