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Prince Harry, Meghan Pursued by Photographers in Cars in New York, Spokesperson Says

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP)
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Prince Harry, Meghan Pursued by Photographers in Cars in New York, Spokesperson Says

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. (AP)

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan were pursued by photographers in cars after a charity event in New York, the couple's office said Wednesday.

The pair, together with Meghan’s mother, were followed for more than two hours by a half-dozen vehicles with blacked out windows after leaving the event, their office said.

Their office said in a statement that the chase “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.” It called the incident “near catastrophic.”

Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris.

The NYPD did not provide immediate comment to describe or corroborate the royals’ statement about the incident.

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the statement from the couple said.

Security for Harry and Meghan has been an issue since the British government stripped them of protection when they moved to California in 2020 and it figures in three of his legal cases against the government and tabloid press.

The chase occurred the same day a lawyer for Harry argued in a London court that he should be able to challenge a government decision denying him the right to pay police for his own security in the UK.

Harry has argued his safety was “compromised due to the absence of police protection” during a short visit to the UK in July 2021, when his car was chased by photographers as he left a charity event.

The couple have said they funded their own security after former President Donald Trump said the US government wouldn’t pay to protect them.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had been in New York to accept the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Award with Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown.

The gala kicked off the foundation’s largest fundraising campaign ever — $100 million over the next 12 months — that will be used to further the organization’s equity-centered initiatives and its mission of advancing women’s collective power.

With her mother, Doria Ragland, in the audience, Meghan recounted how Ms. Magazine was always in their house and how it affected her world view.

“I am a woman who remains inspired and driven by this organization,” she said, looking over at Ms. Foundation co-founder Gloria Steinem. “It allowed me to recognize that part of my greater value and purpose in life was to advocate for those who felt unheard, to stand up to injustice, and to not be afraid of saying what is true and what is just and what is right.”

The event was her first public appearance since she skipped the coronation of her father-in-law King Charles III earlier this month in order to stay at home in California for her son Prince Archie’s fourth birthday. Her husband Prince Harry attended the coronation in London and then rushed back to California.

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Varieties

On the Road with Antiprotons: CERN Runs Delicate Test on Transporting Ultrasensitive Antimatter

A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)
A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)
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On the Road with Antiprotons: CERN Runs Delicate Test on Transporting Ultrasensitive Antimatter

A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)
A technician works in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, during a press visit in Meyrin, near Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 16, 2016. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

Scientists in Geneva are taking some antiprotons out for a spin — a very delicate one — in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive.

If this so-called antimatter comes into contact with actual matter — even for a fraction of an instant — it will be annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, will, over the course of four hours Tuesday, gingerly wheel out from its lab about 100 antiprotons. They are suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

Then, they'll ease it into a truck, and take about a half-hour drive to test how — if at all — the infinitesimal particles can be transported by road without seeping out. If all goes well, the antiprotons will be returned back to the lab.

The hard part: Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.

If those opposites come into contact, they “annihilate” each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren't compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Tuesday’s practice is a first step toward making good on hopes, one day, to deliver CERN antiprotons to researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is about eight hours away in normal driving conditions.

The antiprotons have been encased in a 1,000-kilogram (2,200 pounds) box called a “transportable antiproton trap.” It's compact enough to fit through ordinary laboratory doors and fit on a truck. It uses superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (-452 Fahrenheit) that allows the antiprotons to be remain suspended in a vacuum — not touching the inner walls, which are made of ... matter.

The mass in Tuesday's test — slightly less than that of about 100 hydrogen atoms — is so little, experts say, that the worst possible outcome is the loss of the antiprotons. Even if they do touch matter, any release of energy would be unnoticeable, only an oscilloscope, which picks up electrical signals, would be able to detect it.

The trap, says CERN spokeswoman Sophie Tesauri, “is supposed to contain these antiprotons no matter what: if the truck stops, if it starts again, if it has to slam on the brakes — all that.” Work remains: The trap can contain the antiprotons on its own for only about four hours, and the drive to Düsseldorf is twice that.

The Geneva-based center is best known for its Large Hadron Collider, a network of magnets that accelerates particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and slams them together at velocities approaching the speed of light. Scientists then study the results of those collisions.

But the sprawling, buzzing complex of scientific experiment is more than just about smashing atoms together: the World Wide Web, for example, was invented here by Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

Heinrich Heine University is seen as a better place to study antiprotons in-depth, because CERN — with all its other activities — generates a lot of magnetic interference that can skew the study of antimatter.

But to get them there, those antiprotons will have to avoid touching anything on the way.

The center's Antiproton Decelerator, where a proton beam gets fired into a block of metal, causes collisions that generate secondary particles, including lots of antiprotons. It’s billed as a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for the study of antimatter.

CERN’s “Antimatter Factory,” lab officials say, is the only place in the world where scientists can store and study antiprotons.

The center has been experimenting with antimatter for years, and has made breakthroughs on measurement, storage and interaction of antimatter. Two years ago, the team transported a “cloud” of about 70 protons — not antiprotons — across CERN's campus.

It's a similar drill this time, except that with antiprotons, a much better vacuum chamber is needed, according to Christian Smorra, head of a team behind the apparatus designed to store and transport antimatter.

Jittery test teams weren't available for interviews before the exercise, but were expected to explain the results afterward on Tuesday.

Varieties

8 Arrested in Brazil for 'Brutal' Attack on Capybara

Wounds are seen on the muzzle of a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) under care at the Center for Wildlife Animal Recovery of Estacio de Sa University in the Vargem Pequena neighborhood, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 23, 2026. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
Wounds are seen on the muzzle of a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) under care at the Center for Wildlife Animal Recovery of Estacio de Sa University in the Vargem Pequena neighborhood, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 23, 2026. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
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8 Arrested in Brazil for 'Brutal' Attack on Capybara

Wounds are seen on the muzzle of a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) under care at the Center for Wildlife Animal Recovery of Estacio de Sa University in the Vargem Pequena neighborhood, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 23, 2026. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
Wounds are seen on the muzzle of a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) under care at the Center for Wildlife Animal Recovery of Estacio de Sa University in the Vargem Pequena neighborhood, in the southwest zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 23, 2026. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)

Rio de Janeiro police said Monday they had arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara -- the world's largest rodent whose chill demeanor has inspired countless memes online in recent years.

Resembling a giant, gentle guinea pig, the shaggy, light brown capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is often seen roaming in the Brazilian city, particularly near streams and lagoons.

In an incident filmed by security cameras before dawn on Saturday, a group of attackers beat the capybara with sticks and iron bars in the working-class neighborhood of Ilha do Governador.

"This is a brutal crime that shocks society," said Felipe Santoro, the police commissioner in charge of the investigation, was quoted as saying by the O Globo daily newspaper.

"It is an act of extreme cruelty toward a creature that posed absolutely no threat...yet was deliberately attacked nonetheless," he added.

The attackers -- including two minors -- were identified through CCTV footage and arrested on Saturday, AFP quoted police as saying in a statement.

The capybara, a 65-kilogram (143-pound) male, was taken to the Wildlife Care Center (CRAS) at the private Estacio University in southwestern Rio.

"We have been treating Rio's wildlife here for 22 years, and I have never before received a capybara subjected to such extreme aggression," veterinarian and head of CRAS Jeferson Pires told AFP on Monday.

He said the creature was doing better, but was "suffering from head trauma, swelling with internal bleeding around his left eye, and multiple injuries to his back."

In recent years the semi-aquatic capybara -- native to South America -- has gained a devoted following online, and its image is increasingly used on toys, clothing and home decor items.

It is often used in posts about being zen and going with the flow.

One popular meme is "Comrade Capybara" -- depicting the animal as a communist revolutionary -- inspired by the 2021 "invasion" by capybaras of a luxury gated estate in Argentina that was built on a wetland that had been their natural habitat.

In early January, the death of a stray dog after it was beaten to death by teenagers sparked a massive wave of outrage in Brazil, even prompting a reaction from First Lady Rosangela "Janja" da Silva.

Varieties

Stone of Scone Fragments Made into Ring

The Coronation Chair with the Stone of Scone at Westminster Abbey (Getty)
The Coronation Chair with the Stone of Scone at Westminster Abbey (Getty)
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Stone of Scone Fragments Made into Ring

The Coronation Chair with the Stone of Scone at Westminster Abbey (Getty)
The Coronation Chair with the Stone of Scone at Westminster Abbey (Getty)

One of the “hidden” fragments of the Stone of Scone was set into a ring that was lost or stolen shortly afterwards, it has emerged.

The ancient stone was snatched during an infamos raid in which a group of nationalist students took it from Westminster Abbey and returned it to Scotland. The stone broke in two during the heist, and was repaired in secret by a supportive stonemason named Bertie Gray, according to the Press Association.

A research project recently revealed Gray’s work may have produced around 34 fragments of the stone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, which he distributed to people around the Scottish nationalist movement. One ended up at the SNP’s headquarters after being gifted to Alex Salmond.

David Rollo is believed to have been gifted one of the fragments in 1951, which he had set into a ring. He was friends with Gavin Vernon, one of the four students who took the stone from Westminster Abbey.

Rollo died in 1997, aged 70, and his daughter Vivienne is now trying to unravel the mystery of the ring’s fate.

Her father left few clues as to what became of it, and told her the ring was either lost or stolen and that he had an idea of who had it but he would not name the person he suspected.

Vivienne, who lives in Wester Ross, told the Press Association: “I would definitely like to know what happened to it... It would be such a thing to have as a family heirloom.”

She said she believes Vernon had asked her father to join him in the fateful Christmas Day heist at the end of 1950, but he declined to take part.

“I’m pretty sure Gavin asked my dad if he wanted to come along for this,” she said. “My dad said ‘don’t be daft, you’ll never do it’.”

Rollo was called in for questioning by police in the days after the raid, as the authorities tried to recover the Stone of Destiny.

He told the police nothing and was not directly involved in hiding the artefact before it was later found by police at Arbroath Abbey in April 1951.

The missing ring is one of several stories that have emerged as a research project seeks to document the fate of the fragments from the sandstone block, which were considered “hidden” for many years.

Professor Sally Foster of Stirling University has been working to trace the stories of the fragments. She is still keen to hear from people who may have knowledge of the whereabouts of the pieces.