Diana's legacy looms large over Kate's big day



LONDON // The legacy of Princess Diana, and the media coverage that played such a major part in her life and death, will loom large over this week's royal wedding.

Prince Harry, best man to brother Prince William at his marriage to Kate Middleton on Friday, admits that the absence of his late mother will inevitably play on the minds of many of those at the wedding.

"Myself, my brother and my father … there will be all sorts of people and the rest of the family that will be no doubt be thinking about it," he said recently. "And I hope she would be very, very proud that the big day has come upon him."

It was symbolic that Prince William chose to put his mother's engagement ring on Miss Middleton's finger. Symbolic, too, that the happy couple will travel after the wedding in the same horse-drawn carriage that carried Princess Diana after her marriage to Prince Charles in 1982, ill-starred though it eventually turned out to be.

Now Miss Middleton is on the verge of overtaking Princess Diana as the most talked-about woman in the world's media, according to a study released last week by the Global Language Monitor (GLM), based in Texas.

Tracking media citations worldwide, GLM found that, almost two weeks before the wedding that will attract a television audience estimated at two billion viewers worldwide, Miss Middleton was already posting Diana-type numbers in terms of news worthiness on leading global media sites, the Internet and social media.

"Kate Middleton is set to eclipse Princess Di as the media star of the royal family," Paul JJ Payack, GLM president, told Reuters.

"In fact, Kate could surpass all Internet, social media, and global print and electronic media citations by the time the royal wedding-related stories are compiled."

Yet while both Miss Middleton and Princess Diana have provided irresistible attractions for the media, the practical responses of the pair to this attention have been markedly different.

Princess Diana might have aspired to be a fairy-tale princess but Miss Middleton certainly does not.

While Princess Diana regularly courted the media until her death in Paris 14 years ago at the hands of a drunken chauffeur apparently trying to outrun pursuing paparazzi, Miss Middleton has proved far more wary of the press.

In fact, since Princess Diana's death, Buckingham Palace itself has become much more media savvy. And tougher, if informal, arrangements to stop royals being harassed by the press in their off-duty hours have come into effect.

"You've got people around William and Kate who understand the needs of the media and of the public," said Max Clifford, the doyen of British PR consultants.

Mr Clifford said that, in a concerted effort to avoid the negative publicity that accompanied Princess Diana and her death, Buckingham Palace had conceded that it must provide access to the couple to keep the media onside.

Unlike in Princess Diana's day, a senior member of the Buckingham Palace staff has been tasked with teaching Prince William and Miss Middleton how to handle the media. Added to that, they now have a formidable press secretary in Miguel Head who has bluntly told the media that legal action would be instituted if any tried to intrude on the couple's private life.

Aside from the voluntary code between the media and the palace, drawn up under the auspices of the Press Complaints Commisssion (PCC), Miss Middleton has far more legal protection than Princess Diana ever did. Privacy provisions within the 1998 Human Rights Act and 1997 Protection from Harassment Act open the way for legal action against paparazzi deemed to be intruding on her private life.

Miss Middleton and her family have shown they are willing to take action. In 2007, she won an apology from the Daily Mirror after it published a picture of her walking with a cup of coffee. She complained to the PCC that she felt harassed.

A year ago, Miss Middleton received £5,000 (Dh30,318) in damages for a breach of privacy, plus legal costs from the picture agency Rex Features who distributed pictures of her on a tennis court in Cornwall.

And this month, her mother and sister made an informal complaint to the PCC over harassment by photographers, which led the press watchdog to remind editors of their ethical obligations in a letter.

"Kate Middleton - like anybody else, in the public eye or not - is protected by the terms of harassment in the code," said a PCC spokesman. "Editors are bound to ensure that they do not publish pictures obtained in contravention of the code. There is a public interest exemption to this clause."

However, for all the voluntary codes and legal protections, members of the paparazzi still seem bent of keeping a very close eye on Prince William's bride, just as they did when his mother was alive.

"The simple fact is," said one veteran royal photographer, speaking on the grounds of anonymity, "that there is an awful lot of money to be made out there from one picture of Kate. Even if the British press won't use them, there's a pretty insatiable appetite abroad for such stuff. Even innocuous pictures, like the one of Kate when she popped in to Westminster Abbey to check it out as a wedding venue, can pull in £100,000 in syndication."

Jenny Afia, a senior associate at leading media law firm Schillings, agrees. "Voluntary arrangements can work well because they're commercially motivated. Magazines like Hello! have more to gain by staying onside with the royals than alienating them," she said.

"But if there's one fantastic story that's worth jeopardising the relationship, the media will go with it."

It seems that, come the crunch, times might not have changed all that much since Princess Diana's death in the tunnel in Paris.

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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale

Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni

Director: Amith Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5

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Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

The specs

Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6

Power: 400hp

Torque: 475Nm

Transmission: 9-speed automatic

Price: From Dh215,900

On sale: Now

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
How to get there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
 

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo

Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 6-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km

Price: Dh133,900

On sale: now 

SPECS
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If you go

 

  • The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
  • The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
  • The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as  Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
If you go

The flights

There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.

The trip

Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.

The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.

 

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if you go

The flights

Emirates offer flights to Buenos Aires from Dubai, via Rio De Janeiro from around Dh6,300. emirates.com

Seeing the games

Tangol sell experiences across South America and generally have good access to tickets for most of the big teams in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Independiente. Prices from Dh550 and include pick up and drop off from your hotel in the city. tangol.com

 

Staying there

Tangol will pick up tourists from any hotel in Buenos Aires, but after the intensity of the game, the Faena makes for tranquil, upmarket accommodation. Doubles from Dh1,110. faena.com

 

'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?

Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
 

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Kamindu Mendis bio

Full name: Pasqual Handi Kamindu Dilanka Mendis

Born: September 30, 1998

Age: 20 years and 26 days

Nationality: Sri Lankan

Major teams Sri Lanka's Under 19 team

Batting style: Left-hander

Bowling style: Right-arm off-spin and slow left-arm orthodox (that's right!)

AUSTRALIA SQUAD

Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

The specs

Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)

'My Son'

Director: Christian Carion

Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis

Rating: 2/5

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57%20Seconds
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COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed 

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The currency conundrum

Russ Mould, investment director at online trading platform AJ Bell, says almost every major currency has challenges right now. “The US has a huge budget deficit, the euro faces political friction and poor growth, sterling is bogged down by Brexit, China’s renminbi is hit by debt fears while slowing Chinese growth is hurting commodity exporters like Australia and Canada.”

Most countries now actively want a weak currency to make their exports more competitive. “China seems happy to let the renminbi drift lower, the Swiss are still running quantitative easing at full tilt and central bankers everywhere are actively talking down their currencies or offering only limited support," says Mr Mould.

This is a race to the bottom, and everybody wants to be a winner.


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