Good morning. At the first meeting of the Board of Peace yesterday, President Trump announced $7 billion in pledges to rebuild Gaza, but he gave few details about how that might happen. Later, he said he would release government files related to U.F.O.s and aliens. And the actor Eric Dane, known as McSteamy on “Grey’s Anatomy,” died at 53. There’s more news below, but I’m going to start today with the British royal family. It’s kind of unbelievable we were once ruled by these people.
Andrew’s arrestYesterday brought the first arrest of a senior member of the royal family since 1647, when Charles I was charged with treason and eventually beheaded. This time, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, is under suspicion of “misconduct in public office” during his time as Britain’s trade envoy. The accusation follows years of reports about his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The former prince was released from custody by evening, but the investigation continues. If he’s prosecuted, he faces a possible life sentence. We’re a long way from the last criminal episode involving the royals — the time Princess Anne’s bull terrier, Dotty, bit two children near Windsor Castle in 2002. The arrest came after the disclosure of Epstein’s files by the U.S. Justice Department. British prosecutors didn’t say much about their current investigation. But local reporters had previously described emails in which Andrew, as I’ll call him here, appeared to give Epstein confidential trade documents in the early 2010s. In the United States, lawmakers had to pry information about Epstein from the federal government, and the Justice Department has not announced any new prosecutions of Epstein’s associates. Britain, by contrast, has already arrested the onetime Duke of York. The British investigation hasn’t mentioned abuse of women by Andrew, though. He has faced no legal jeopardy for his treatment of Virginia Giuffre, whom he paid to settle a New York lawsuit in which she said he had raped her when she was 17. Instead, British officials are looking at his years in government service. It reminds me of the American authorities’ pursuit of the gangster Al Capone. (They wanted him for murder. They charged him with tax evasion.) Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Who is this Windsor?Andrew turned 66 yesterday. (Can’t have been a fun birthday. “Many Crappy Returns,” a headline in a British tabloid read.) He is the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Elizabeth, watchers of the royals say, considered Andrew her favorite son. He was raised in a world of almost unimaginable privilege, taught first by a governess at Buckingham Palace, then by instructors at the same boarding school his father and brother had attended. An appointment to the Royal Navy followed. He trained as a helicopter pilot, enrolled at Britain’s naval college and eventually served his nation with distinction during the Falklands War. People really liked him then, the dashing playboy. Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, whom he’d known since childhood, in 1986. They had two children before divorcing amicably a decade later, around the same time he became close with Epstein. (Fergie’s in the Epstein files, too. The prince emailed her to ask if she’d put out a statement saying that he was “not a pedo.”) The relationship between the two men appeared at least partly transactional. Andrew was working as a trade envoy for the government, and Epstein was ostensibly a titan in finance. The connection offered “seriously beneficial outcomes,” Andrew explained in a disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC. He said he regretted that Epstein conducted himself in a “manner unbecoming,” but viewers found the prince insincere. Soon after, Andrew stepped away from public life. Last fall, his brother, the king, stripped his title as prince. Yesterday, he was arrested.
The king’s headacheKing Charles III was unequivocal in his response. He said investigators “have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation.” He added, “Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.” Should that course result in a prosecution, the king will be a part of it. All criminal cases in Britain are brought in the name of the monarch, who is listed on official documents as “Rex” — meaning it could be big-brother king versus little-brother defendant in court. What an amazing country. The court of public opinion will issue its own ruling on the woes of the House of Windsor. King Charles, for his part, wants to portray a crown that holds itself to account, that exists as a responsible and honest shepherd of the nation. The royal statement — not from Buckingham Palace but from Charles himself — ended by explaining what the clan would do while the investigation unspooled. “My family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all,” he wrote. There is something quintessentially, maybe even cartoonishly, British about the whole approach: stiffening his upper lip, keeping calm, carrying on. Hours after the arrest of his brother, Charles attended a fashion show. Read what we know about Andrew’s arrest and what could happen next.
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