Charles gets his hands dirty on litter clean up as he hears of traumatic rescue
It comes as President Macron and Sir Keir Starmer held a summit to discuss how to tackle migrant crossings from France to the UK shores after the French State Visit earlier this week.
During an away day to Deal in Kent, Charles visited the Walmer lifeboat station where he met Andrew Holland, Victoria Ward, Dan Sinclair and James Foster. The four were awarded with the Thanks of the Institution award by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
During a trip to Kent, King Charles heard dramatic rescue stories from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Image: PA)
Sinclair told the King: "Myself and three crew members saved five lives from a sinking boat in the channel ten miles off shore on a cold winter's morning in 2022. It was quite a traumatic call-out. The boat started taking on water and started sinking in front of our eyes.
"There were 40 on board. Luckily we pulled five of them out of the water, the other 35 were pulled out by UK border force."
When the King asked about the vessel they were travelling in, Sinclair said: "It was in a small dinghy." Charles appeared to suggest that they were not particularly hardy to which Sinclair replied: "They're not very seaworthy, no." The rescue was previously featured on the BBC series Saving Lives at Sea.
Afterwards, Charles, 76, headed to the pebble beach in Deal, greeting lifeboat staff and receiving a cheer as the national anthem played.
The visit comes as Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron discussed the increasing numbers of migrant boats crossing from France to England (Image: PA)
In an impromptu walkabout, he asked the crowd "have you all been standing here boiling for hours?"
Speaking to staff as they simulated a "shout" alert, he told them they were "incredible" before joining a litter pick on the beach.
The King told RAF cadets who had joined the clean up: "Do you all do it regularly or have they just dragged you out today?" He was told: "We'd like to do it more regularly."
In a long walkabout along the sea front he met members of the public including a bare chested man who admitted to the King: 'I've come a little under-dressed.'
Charles worried about the number of royal fans waiting to meet him in the blazing sun (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Charles asked the crowd who had been waiting for hours in the heat: "You haven't all died of sunstroke have you?"
Earlier, the King, wearing the pin badge of the cinque ports, arrived at Walmer Castle by helicopter and was introduced to Lady Colgrain, Lord Lieutenant of Kent, and the castle's current Lord Warden, Sir George Zambellas, former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff.
Dr Kathryn Bedford, English Heritage's curator in the east and southeast, gave the King a tour of the castle, which was built as a device port by Henry VIII between 1539-40 to protect English from possible invasion by Catholic Europe.
At the state banquet with President Macron on Tuesday, Charles used his speech to say that 'no fortress can protect us' as the challenges facing countries today 'know no borders'.
Amid conversations between Macron and Sir Keir Starmer about the issue of migrants crossing the channel, Sir George said that the 'pressure on coastal towns on the south coast' was a 'universal issue'.
Charles met with volunteers during his tour of Deal in Kent (Image: PA)
Former Lord Wardens of the castle include George V, Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother who held the position from 1978 until her death in 2002.
During her time as warden, Queen Elizabeth had living accommodation inside the castle where she spent weekends holding events. Today, the castle is undergoing a multi-million-pound restoration project to restore the roof.
When asked how conservation work was going, Neil McCollum, regional lead for English Heritage, told the King it was 'endless, there's always something that needs doing'.
Charles also spent time talking to mayors of the different port towns.
The King also joined in a litter clear up on the pebbled beach (Image: Max Mumby)
The King made a Barry Humpries joke and recalled his childhood steam train rides as he visited a castle that served as a weekend retreat for his late grandmother.
In the Queen Mother garden at Walmer Castle in Kent, designed for Queen Elizabeth's 95th birthday, the King met mayors of the 14 coastal cinque ports. He said: 'I remember as a child going on the Romney, Hythe and Dimchurch Railway.'
When he was told it was still running Charles said 'Hurray!' He went on to say that he recalled 'standing on the bridge watching the golden arrow [another railway line] passing underneath in the olden days, in the 50s.'
The King spoke with royal fans who had waited to catch a glimpse of the monarch, as he urged them to be careful of sunstroke (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
When he was passed a bunch of Dahlias by a representative of Hythe which caused Charles to remark that it reminded him of 'Barry Humphries and his Gladdies', referring to the late Australian comedian's jokes about dahlias.
In a meeting with primary school-age children who are carers, the King was asked what his favourite dogs and flowers were, revealing they were Jack Russells and "Schnauzers, the ones with the moustaches'.
Chatting animatedly to the children, the monarch also revealed that delphiniums were his favourite flowers.
WHATSAPP GROUP: Be first to get the biggest royal bombshells and exclusives to your phone by joining our Royal WhatsApp here.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
NEWSLETTER: Or sign up to the Mirror's Royal newsletter here to get all the biggest royal news and exclusive pictures, straight to your inbox.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fashion United
2 hours ago
- Fashion United
EU and Japan agree on closer cooperation
Japan and the European Union (EU) aim to further strengthen their cooperation in the areas of economic security, trade and defence. For this purpose, both sides launched a "Competitiveness Alliance" at a summit meeting in Tokyo. "We will expand our cooperation on increasing the resilience of supply chains and reducing strategic dependencies," a joint final declaration stated. At the same time, the EU and Japan emphasised the importance of promoting free trade and multilateralism. Closer cooperation has become even more important against the backdrop of a "complex global geopolitical environment, in particular Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the serious challenges to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and other regional and international issues", the declaration continued. The EU and Japan are determined "to work with like-minded international partners to address these challenges". This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Steve Reed's water claims that of an incompetent charlatan
IN an article for The National, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Energy angrily responded to false statements made earlier this week by UK Environment minister Steve Reed. He attempted to defend his own Labour party's betrayal of its pre-election promise to nationalise England's failing, privately-owned water companies by claiming that nationalisation was not the solution to England's dirty and expensive water, stating that Scottish Water is publicly owned, yet "[water] pollution levels in Scotland are worse than they are in England". This is categorically untrue. Either Reed knew it was untrue and said it anyway, knowing he'd be unlikely to be challenged – in which case he's a charlatan and a liar –, or he didn't know it was untrue – in which case he's an incompetent charlatan, who uncritically leaps on false statements to get himself out of politically tricky situations. Reed also warned that nationalisation would cost £100bn and would slow down efforts to cut pollution. This claim has also been disputed. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar urged to break silence on Labour's 'nuclear tax' for Scots Estimates of the cost of renationalising the water industry in England range from £14.7bn, a figure estimated by the public services international research unit (PSIRU) at the University of Greenwich, to £99bn if company debts are included, a figure estimated by a thinktank commissioned by the water companies themselves. By citing the figure of £100 billion, it's clear that Reed and the Labour Government are siding with the profiteers of the English private water companies. This figure is based on a calculation of the maximum dividends, which starts from the purchase cost of the companies in 1990 when they were privatised, adding capital investment per year and inflation, but it takes no account of the actual market value of the companies. Crucially, these figures are predicated on the assumption that directors and shareholders who have extracted vast profits from the water companies over the years while piling debts on the companies should be financially compensated for nationalisation and not be left liable for the debt. Some claim that the cost of nationalisation could be close to zero. Thames Water is currently in debt to the tune of some £20 billion – even though its directors and shareholders have continued to profit, so it could be argued that the true value of the company is next to nothing. Thames Water is not alone. England's water companies are bust. They would not be financially viable if they had to meet the required standards without taking on huge amounts of debt. According to the latest independent water commission report, Scotland has a far higher percentage of its waterways in 'good' ecological condition than England and Wales. The Independent Water Commission found that 66% of Scotland's water bodies were of good ecological status, compared with 16.1% in England and 29.9% in Wales. READ MORE: Labour panned for foreign aid cuts as women and children to be hit hardest It is also worth noting that Scotland has some 32% of the UK land mass, is the part of the UK with the highest annual rainfall and has many more water bodies than England and Wales. Loch Ness alone is popularly claimed to contain more fresh water than the combined total of the rivers and lakes of England and Wales, holding 7.4 cubic km of clean Scottish water. Yet Loch Ness is neither Scotland's largest loch by surface area (that's Loch Lomond), nor is it the deepest – that's Loch Morar, whose maximum depth is 310m (1017 ft). Scotland contains truly vast amounts of water, most of which is in good condition. 87% of Scotland's entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a high or good classification for water quality, up from 82% in 2014. The claim about Loch Ness (below) containing more fresh water than all of England's lakes and rivers may just be a popular myth. It's not easy to find reliable statistics on the amount of water in all of England's rivers and lakes, but since the English water companies abstract 4.6 cubic km of water annually and don't extract every last drop of water – otherwise there would be no lakes or rivers left in England – the popular boast about Loch Ness seems unlikely to be true. However, what is unquestionably true, is that Scottish Water must manage much more water than all the water companies of England combined. It does so successfully, without siphoning off large amounts of cash for directors and shareholders and invests back into Scotland's water infrastructure. Steve Reed and this Labour government are terrified of nationalisation, so Reed would rather lie about Scottish Water. For him, that serves two purposes: allowing him to stick the boot into the Scottish Government, while defending the interests of the profiteers of England's private water companies. He does know knowing that he's not going to be challenged by a London centric media, which is all too happy to propagate the Anglo-British nationalist myth that 'parochial' wee Scotland could not possibly make a better fist of things than the all-mighty Westminster. Westminster goes into summer recess this week, and just prior to MPs going off for the summer, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband sneaked in an announcement that the energy bills of everyone in the UK, Scotland included, will increase by around £1 per month in order to cover the estimated £38 billion cost of the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk. The SNP's Westminster energy spokesman, Graham Leadbitter, said nuclear power was 'extortionate, takes decades to build and the toxic waste is a risk to local communities'. He added: "To make matters worse, Scots will be left to foot the bill with a levy on energy bills – you simply couldn't make it up, yet Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour back this extortionate and wasteful plan that energy-rich Scotland will pay for through the nose. 'Meanwhile, Grangemouth has been shut down and Westminster's fiscal regime has ruined Scottish energy jobs – Scotland isn't just an afterthought, it's barely a thought at all.'
NBC News
4 hours ago
- NBC News
French president Macron sues Candace Owens over claim France's first lady was born male
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. on Wednesday against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, centered on her claim that France's first lady is male. The Macrons said in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court that Owens has waged a lie-filled 'campaign of global humiliation' and ' relentless bullying ' to promote her podcast and expand her 'frenzied' fan base. The Macrons said the lies included that Brigitte Macron, 72, was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, the actual name of her older brother. 'Every time the Macrons leave their home, they do so knowing that countless people have heard, and many believe, these vile fabrications,' the complaint said. 'It is invasive, dehumanizing, and deeply unjust.' Owens did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. Macron's office declined comment. The 22-count complaint seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages. Wednesday's lawsuit is a rare case of a world leader suing for defamation. U.S. President Donald Trump has filed multiple defamation lawsuits, including against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal last week. To prevail in U.S. defamation cases, public figures like the Macrons and Trump must show defendants engaged in 'actual malice,' meaning they knew what they published was false or had reckless disregard for its truth.
