2025-10-17 20:27

Queen Elizabeth's son has faced years of scandal Andrew says he has become a distraction for royal family Prince denies all allegations of wrongdoing LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Andrew said on Friday he would give up using his title of Duke of York following years of criticism about his behaviour and connections to the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The reputation of Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles and second son of the late Queen Elizabeth, has taken a battering in recent years, most notably because of his links to Epstein. Sign up here. A court ruling last year also revealed that the British government believed one of his close business associates was a Chinese spy. Andrew at the time said he had stopped all contact with the businessman. ANDREW SAYS HE IS PUTTING COUNTRY FIRST In a statement on Friday, Andrew said "the continued accusations about me" distracted from the work of his elder brother King Charles and the wider work of the British royal family. "I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life," Andrew said. "With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use the title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me." His decision to give up his titles was taken following discussion with senior royals. The king was glad about the outcome, according to a royal source. Andrew, 65, the eighth-in-line to the throne, was once regarded as a dashing naval officer and served in the military during the Falklands War with Argentina in the early 1980s. But he was forced to step down from a roving UK trade ambassador role in 2011, before quitting all royal duties in 2019 and then was stripped of his military links and royal patronages in 2022 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which he has always denied. That year, he settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Andrew has always denied her account, which has returned to prominence in the last week with the release of her memoir. In her book, she said "entitled" Andrew believed it was his birthright to have sex with her, according to extracts published by the Guardian newspaper. "Things are simply not going away," royal biographer Robert Hardman told BBC TV. "And I think the palace has decided, and Prince Andrew has agreed, that there really has to be a further separation. "He wants to look as if he's proactive and try and regain some dignity out of this." BRITONS SUPPORT STRIPPING ANDREW OF TITLES According to a recent poll by YouGov, 67% of Britons supported stripping Andrew of his remaining royal titles, with 13% opposing the move. A separate survey found only 5% of respondents had a favourable view of him. Andrew, who had already given up being called "His Royal Highness", still remains a prince and will continue to live in Royal Lodge, a large property on the estate surrounding Windsor Castle, a historic royal palace to the west of London. However, he will no longer attend the annual royal Christmas get-togethers at Sandringham, the royal home in eastern England. His daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will be unaffected, but his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer be known as the Duchess of York. In September, several charities cut their links to her after she described Epstein as a "supreme friend" in an email three years after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state prostitution charge in Florida and agreed to register as a sex offender. In addition to the ties to Epstein that dogged him, Andrew's business relations have also proved problematic. Last December, court documents revealed that a Chinese businessman who had been authorised to act on Andrew's behalf to seek investors in China had been banned from Britain on national security grounds. The documents revealed the businessman, who the British government believed to be a spy, had been invited to Andrew's birthday party. The British royal family has seen its working numbers diminish in the last few years, with the king's younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan having also stepped down from official duties. While Andrew's title will be inactive rather than taken away, historian Anthony Seldon told the BBC that the last time a senior royal was stripped of a dukedom was more than 100 years ago. "Looking historically, this is a very, very significant step," Seldon said. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britains-prince-andrew-gives-up-title-duke-york-2025-10-17/

2025-10-17 20:26

Federal judiciary to begin furloughs Monday Civil litigation delays mount, but Trump-related cases proceed Funding shortfall hits judiciary harder than during last government shutdown Oct 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. federal court system starting on Monday will begin curtailing non-essential functions and furloughing some employees after exhausting what funds the judiciary had left to sustain paid operations during the U.S. government shutdown. The announcement, detailed in a Thursday internal memo , opens new tab reviewed by Reuters, means the federal judiciary will for the first time in nearly three decades be forced to send some of its over 30,000 employees home and require others to work without a paycheck after Congress failed to pass legislation keeping the courts and the rest of the government funded. Sign up here. The shutdown has already caused widespread delays in civil lawsuits involving federal agencies, as many of their employees have been furloughed. However, judges overseeing numerous legal challenges to Republican President Donald Trump's policies have frequently denied government requests to pause those cases. Unlike executive branch agencies operating under Trump's purview, the judiciary had after the government shutdown that began on October 1 been able to sustain its paid operations for a few weeks by using fees and other funds not dependent on Congress authorizing new spending. But tight budgets in recent years meant the judiciary entered the shutdown with less cash available than it had during a 2019 shutdown in Trump's first term in office, during which the courts sustained paid operations for the full five weeks. Funding was, as a result, projected to be exhausted on Friday. Courts will remain open, and judges and Supreme Court justices will still get paid, thanks to a bar in the U.S. Constitution against a diminution in their pay. Officials in various district courts said they had been informed they could continue paying jurors, at least for now. JUDICIARY TO START SENDING FURLOUGH NOTICES MONDAY But Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, in Thursday's memo told judges and others that the courts had done what they could to maintain operations by deferring planned spending and would enter into a new phase of the shutdown starting at midnight on Monday. Furlough notices will be distributed that morning, and "orderly shutdown activities will commence," Conrad wrote. The last time such furloughs occurred within the judiciary was during government shutdowns that occurred during Democratic President Bill Clinton's tenure in 1995 to 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court will keep hearing arguments and issuing rulings during the shutdown. But while its building will remain open for official business, it will be closed to the public until further notice, Supreme Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe said in a statement. Exactly how many judicial employees will be furloughed is not clear. Officials in various trial courts said most if not all of their staff would be deemed exempt under the Antideficiency Act as they provide essential services that help them fulfill their core duties under the Constitution of resolving cases and facilitating criminal defendants' right to a speedy trial. But probation officers, judicial clerks and administrative staff still on the job are set to receive their last paychecks on October 24, a possibility that "is extremely stressful to our employees," said Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane of the Southern District of Texas, which covers Houston. Chief U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall of the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois in a statement said she was "concerned that the lack of appropriation will create delays in the court’s ability to ensure timely justice." Federal public defenders, who represent indigent defendants who have a right to a lawyer, working in offices that are part of the judiciary likewise will not get paid, nor will private lawyers who do the same under the Criminal Justice Act. Those private lawyers' pay has already been delayed since July after funding for them ran out, a development the courts deem a "crisis." https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-courts-set-run-out-money-begin-furloughs-shutdown-lingers-2025-10-17/

2025-10-17 20:19

California sues three plastic bag makers over false recycling claims Settlement reached with four companies, halting bag sales and $1.8M payment Investigation initiated by Bonta after commission's request to tackle plastic pollution Settlement includes halting sales of plastic bags in California WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The state of California announced a lawsuit against three major plastic bag producers and reached a settlement with four other manufacturers on Friday after concluding an investigation into their false claims that these bags were recyclable. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against Novolex Holdings LLC, Inteplast Group Corp, and Mettler Packaging LLC alleging violations of California's Environmental Marketing Claims Act, False Advertising Law, and Unfair Competition Law. Sign up here. Bonta also announced a settlement with four plastic bag producers, Revolution Sustainable Solutions LLC (Revolution), Metro Poly Corp. (Metro Poly), PreZero US Packaging LLC (PreZero), and Advance Polybag, Inc. (API), resolving their alleged violations of those same laws. "The consequences of these violations are severe: Billions of plastic carryout bags end up in landfills, incinerators, and the environment instead of being recycled as the bags proclaim. Our legal actions today make it clear: No corporation is above the law,” Bonta said in a statement. The actions come nearly three years after Bonta launched an investigation into plastic bag producers in which he requested they substantiate claims that their bags are recyclable. That investigation came after the California Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling had asked the attorney general and regulator CalRecycle to crack down on what it claimed was illegal labeling that was undermining the state's efforts to tackle plastic pollution. The sale of these thicker recycled plastic bags emerged from what critics said became a loophole in California's 2017 ban on single-use shopping bags that enabled retailers to sell reusable plastic bags for a minimum of 10 cents each if the bags can be recycled in California. As part of the settlement, the four companies agreed to halt plastic bag sales in California and pay a total of $1.8 million to the state. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/california-takes-action-against-plastic-bag-makers-over-recycling-claims-2025-10-17/

2025-10-17 20:16

1,400 furloughs start by Monday, 400 will remain Energy secretary says will affect weapons modernization program Workers on emergency services to remain Shutdown is on 17th day WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Trump administration by Monday will furlough about 1,400 workers at the agency that manages the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal due to the government shutdown, the Department of Energy said on Friday. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a post on X that the furloughs will affect National Nuclear Security Administration workers who are "critical to modernizing our nuclear arsenal." Sign up here. A spokesperson said nearly 400 workers would remain at the NNSA, a semi-autonomous branch of the Department of Energy that also works around the world to secure dangerous nuclear materials, including in Ukraine as the war with Russia continues. NNSA's federal staff oversees some 60,000 contractors maintaining and testing weapons at national laboratories and other locations across the U.S. Wright told USA Today that there could be tens of thousands of layoffs of contractors along with furloughs of staff workers due to the shutdown, now on its 17th day. A nuclear weapons control expert criticized the potential cuts. "If the Trump administration really thinks the NNSA’s functions are important — and many of them are essential for nuclear facility safety and security — I am sure they can find the funds to keep the workers on the job, or else they might want to rethink their position on the federal government shutdown," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. The agency will not furlough people working on emergency services, Wright told Bloomberg Surveillance on Friday. But he said the modernization of nuclear weapons program to replace older weapons could be affected. "We're just getting momentum there," he said about the program. "To have everybody unpaid and not coming to work, that will not be helpful." The costs of operating and modernizing America's nuclear forces through 2034 are projected to soar to $946 billion, 25% higher than a 2023 estimate, a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in April. Nuclear weapons expenditures are divided between the Pentagon and the NNSA. The DOE said Wright would visit the National Nuclear Security Site in Nevada on Monday to discuss the impacts of the shutdown on the nuclear weapons arsenal. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-furlough-workers-nuclear-weapons-agency-due-shutdown-2025-10-17/

2025-10-17 19:54

BoC to restart single-point economic and inflation forecasts Money markets predict 64% chance of 25 basis point rate cut IMF enhancing surveillance of global financial imbalances OTTAWA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada will be putting more emphasis on potential risks when it decides what to do about interest rates later this month even as it tries to be more forward-looking, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Friday. "We will need to be humble about our forecasts, and we will continue to put a lot of emphasis on the risks," Macklem told reporters on a conference call from Washington. Sign up here. The central bank is due to release the rate decision and its latest economic forecasts on October 29 when it will also resume issuing forecasts for the economy and inflation, a practice it discontinued earlier this year citing heightened uncertainty due to a constant threat of tariffs. "We will be using a new base case projection to look forward against the background of heightened uncertainty ... I'm hoping we can be a bit more forward looking," Macklem said. He added that there was still a lot of uncertainty even though it lower than the levels seen in February and March. Money markets forecast that a roughly 64% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut later this month which will bring down the benchmark policy rate to 2.25%. The bank had cut rates last month by 25 basis points to 2.5%. Before the next rates decision, the BoC will have the benefit of a business and consumer survey which will give insights into inflation expectations, investments and spending. This survey is scheduled for Monday. It will also get the latest inflation report on Tuesday which will show where consumer prices were in September. The BoC expects GDP growth to resume after a contraction of 1.6% on an annualized basis in the second quarter, Macklem said, but he expects it to still be soft and below potential growth which will not be enough to close the output gap. Macklem was in Washington to participate in the meetings of the financial leaders of the G7 and meetings of the International Monetary Fund. He said the leaders at the IMF agreed global imbalances were widening again and could potentially heighten risks, worsen trade tensions and threaten financial stability. "I'm pleased that the IMF is enhancing surveillance of imbalances," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bank-canada-focus-more-risks-will-try-be-forward-looking-head-says-2025-10-17/

2025-10-17 19:54

OTTAWA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada will be putting more emphasis on the potential risks when it decides what to do about interest rates later this month, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Friday. "There is a lot of uncertainty, and we're going to have to be humble about our forecast," Macklem told reporters on a conference call from Washington. Sign up here. The central bank is due to release the rate decision and its latest economic forecasts on October 29. ((Reuters Ottawa editorial; [email protected] , opens new tab)) Keywords: CANADA CENBANK/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bank-canada-focus-more-risks-ahead-rate-decision-says-head-2025-10-17/