Skip to main content

Queen's message hails terror-hit London and Manchester




The Queen will pay tribute to London and Manchester in her Christmas Day broadcast for the way in which they dealt with this year's terror attacks.
Looking back over the events of 2017, the Queen says both cities' "powerful identities" had "shone through".
The Queen will also praise the Duke of Edinburgh for his support, in the year of their 70th wedding anniversary.
She will spend the day at Sandringham with the Royal Family, including Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle.
It will be the first time someone who is yet to marry into the Royal Family will have joined its Christmas celebrations.
The Queen was absent from last year's Christmas morning service at the estate in Norfolk because of a heavy cold.

Theme of home

The Queen recorded this year's Christmas message to the Commonwealth a few days ago in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace.
Its main theme is the importance of "home", which she describes as a place of "warmth, familiarity and love", with a "timeless simplicity" and "pull".


On a table, alongside photographs of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, are two pictures of her with the Duke of Edinburgh, one of which was taken on their wedding day in 1947 and the other from their anniversary in November this year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meryl Streep wants to trademark her own name

Meryl Streep has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year long career on stage, screen and television. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File) Meryl Streep, the most celebrated actress of her generation, has filed an application to trademark her name. The application was filed with US Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, records show. It requests that the name Meryl Streep be trademarked for “entertainment services,” movie appearances, speaking engagements and autographs. Streep, 68, last week extended her record to 21 Academy Award nominations, this time for her role in “The Post.” She has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year long career on stage, screen and television. It is not clear why Streep would file a trademark application at this stage in her career and her attorney and publicist did not return a request for comment on Monday. Many celebrities trademark their names or catch phrases to pro...

Beijing’s struggle against pollution will be tough, take time: Mayor

Beijing’s battle against air pollution will take time and be very tough to win despite recent improvements, the acting mayor of China’s capital said on Wednesday. The city has been fighting to clean its notoriously smoggy air through steps such as pushing households and factories to switch away from coal to cleaner fuels like natural gas. “Further improvement in air quality (will be) extremely difficult,” acting mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining, said in a statement released during the city’s congress meeting. The central government’s intense focus on air quality means many local officials’ careers are linked to the success of efforts to tackle smog, making it unusual to speak candidly about the challenges of meeting tough targets. Beijing has chalked up a short-term success by cutting the annual average level of breathable particulate matter (PM 2.5) to 58 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017, beating a target set by the State Council in 2012. However, the city is still some way f...

US slaps anti-dumping duty on polyester staple fiber from China, India

United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. (source: Wikimedia commons) The Trump Administration has slapped anti-dumping duties on stainless steel flangs and finer denier polyester staple fiber from China and India. Exporters from China and India received countervailing subsidies of 41.73 to 47.55 per cent and 9.50 to 25.28 percent, respectively, the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross alleged Wednesday. As such he has instructed US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of fine denier polyester staple fiber from China and India based on these final rates. “The US will no longer sit back and watch as its domestic businesses are destroyed by unfair foreign government subsidies. We will continue to take action on behalf of US industry to defend American businesses, workers, and communities adversely impacted by unfair imports,” Ross was quoted as saying by PTI. In 2016, imports of fine denier polyester staple fiber from China and India were ...