Royal news live: King Charles given rare Sydney honour after ‘snub’ as Kate Middleton issues powerful tribute

Can the royal family and King Charles adapt to the modern age and stay relevant? Will Harry be able to rejoin The Firm? And what will the next generation of royalty be like?

These and more questions from our audience were answered in The Independent’s premium event on the future of the royal family.

Hosted by assistant editor Victoria Harper, the panel features bestselling authors Anna Pasternak and Tessa Dunlop, plus royal historian Jonathan Spangler.

Watch the full event here. If you enjoy our virtual events, please consider supporting The Independent with a donation or by subscribing to Independent Premium.

The royal family has shared a behind-the-scenes look at Buckingham Palace as a 780-strong team undertake a £360 million refurbishment of the historic building.

As part of the palace’s reservicing programme, work is taking place in the basement, replacing old electrical cabling with brand new cables under the floors and throughout the historic building.

In a new video, released by the royal family on Tuesday (8 October), workers can be seen pulling some of the 25,000 metres of cable through the basement.

The vast amount is equivalent to the weight of 12 elephants and runs the length of 250 football pitches.

Meghan Markle candidly spoke to teenagers about her experiences with being bullied online at a recent event.

On October 2, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, visited the Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara, which is the “preeminent girls’ leadership organization equipping girls to reach their full potential,” according to the company’s official website. Her appearance came to help the organization with a digital wellness program, Social Media U, which has received financial support from Meghan and Prince Harry’s Archwell Foundation.

During an interview with Vanity Fair, Larissa May, the co-founder of #HalfTheStory – an advocacy group that’s working with Girl Inc. – shared how Meghan spoke to children about her personal experiences with online bullying.

“We did an activity where we talked through a bunch of scenarios, and Meghan talked about being one of the most bullied people in the world,” May said.

Read the full story here:

More attention is needed on the “desperate” humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the Duchess of Edinburgh said on a visit to the neighbouring country of Chad.

Speaking at a reception on Saturday, the first day of her three-day visit to Africa, Sophie said she hoped to “shine a light” on the situation at the border, where hundreds of refugees are crossing every day to escape the civil war in Sudan.

She said: “Whilst the world and its attention is being focused very much on other conflicts around the world, the humanitarian crisis being faced by the people of Sudan, which is landing on Chad’s shores, cannot be ignored.

“So I’m here to try and help continue to shine a light on what needs to be done, on the work that is being done, but to ask for more to be done.”

The duchess, who spent a day in Adre, at the border with Sudan, thanked the people of Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world, for the support they are offering to refugees.

She added: “Really, my job here this next couple of days is to learn more about the issues and to see for myself at the border what is happening so that I may take that message back to the United Kingdom and in my travels more widely to try to create more focus, more attention on the situation that is happening here in Chad as a result of what’s happening in Sudan.”

The Duchess of Edinburgh has travelled to Chad in central Africa to raise awareness of the situation in the neighbouring country of Sudan. She visited Adre, on the border of the two countries, where hundreds of refugees are crossing daily to flee conflict.

Here is a look at what is happening in the region:

Civil war broke out in April 2023 after a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

As well as the violence, those living in the country are facing extreme shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel.

According to the UN refugee agency, Sudan is the world’s largest hunger crisis, with over half of the country’s population – nearly 26 million people – facing high levels of acute hunger.

Since the start of the conflict, 870,000 refugees and returnees have crossed the border from Sudan into Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The border crossing in Adre, which reopened to aid in August, sees hundreds of people cross every day.

More than 220,000 people are living in refugee camps in Adre, mostly women and children.

The war in Sudan is having a disproportionate impact on women and girls, including through conflict-related sexual violence.

The UN estimates 6.7 million people are at risk of gender-based violence in Sudan. The Duchess of Edinburgh said during her discussions with women, she was told of “devastating” experiences and of rape being used in exchange for food or water.

The Duchess of Edinburgh was moved to tears after she met refugees fleeing to Chad to escape the civil war in Sudan and heard their “devastating” experiences of sexual violence.

Sophie became the first member of the royal family to make an official visit to the central African country when she spent three days there, including one at the border with Sudan, before leaving on Monday afternoon.

At a hospital centre in Adre, near the border, the duchess hugged five survivors of conflict-related sexual violence after hearing what they had been through.

Sophie, 59, was in tears as she spoke to the media following the private meeting.

She said: “People are having to exchange food and water for sex, for rape. That is violence that is being enacted through conflict. It is being used as a bargaining tool.

“These women have no option but to leave. And, even then, they’re lucky if some of them can get away because some of the villages and towns that they come from they can’t even leave their houses any more. If they leave their houses they get killed.”

She added: “What they do to the children is… I can’t even use the words.”

One of the women who Sophie met said afterwards she had fled the city of Geneina, in the west Darfur region of Sudan, after thousands of people were killed in a matter of days.

The woman said her family had been threatened with death and rape if they left their home, while her teenage son and brothers were among men who were rounded up and taken away.

She described seeing bodies piled up in the street “like a wall”.

Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic has called for “full disclosure” of gifts handed to King Charles and other royals after annual lists have not been published for four years.

Responding to the news, first reported in the Observer, Republic’s Graham Smith said: “If politicians are being lambasted for failing to declare gifts, the same should apply to the royals.

“It is vital that the public knows about any possible conflicts of interest or attempts to curry favour with royals, as they have direct access to the highest levels of government. And we need to know if official gifts are being handed over to the state or surreptitiously kept for personal use.

“Charles and senior royals have access to government papers, can have secretive meetings with ministers and the prime minister and they have leverage to pressure government to do favours for them and their friends. So it’s vital we know what gifts they’re receiving.

“The royals have form when it comes to blurring the lines between what’s theirs to keep and what’s an official gift. So full disclosure is needed on what’s been received and where those gifts are now.

“There’s usually a good reason why billionaires and Saudi businessmen give gifts, because something is expected in return. So we need full disclosure, not just of royal gifts but also royal lobbying.

“If we demand high standards from politicians, we must demand those same standards from the royals.”

Buckingham Palace has said the list will be published in due course.

King Charles is reported to be bringing two doctors with him on his upcoming trip to Australia and Samoa.

While the monarch, 75, will “pause” his cancer treatment during the visit, the presence of the medical professionals will allow him to continue to be monitored closely, a palace source said according to The Times.

Hugo Vickers, historian and author, added: “I’m sure that the medical team has been consulted and will look after the King and make sure that he doesn’t overwork, as we know he has a propensity to do. I’m sure he wouldn’t be undertaking the trip unless he was fit enough to do it.”

Anti-royalist activists are selling “farewell tour” merchandise ahead of King Charles’ visit to Australia this week.

Charles and Camilla are set to kick off the first royal visit to the country in over a decade on Friday - but their anticipated arrival has sparked debate about the monarchy’s role in modern Australia.

The Australian Republican Movement (ARM) has branded the visit as the royal’s “farewell tour” as they campaign to separate the Commonwealth country from the monarchy.

Retro style satirical posters, T-shirts and beer coasters have been created with Charles, Camilla and Prince William on them, encouraging Australians to “wave goodbye to royal reign”.

A T-shirt, featuring the royal trio in aviator sunglasses, is retailing for 34 AUD on the campaign group’s website, finished with the description: “Alright legends the stage is set... Let’s wave goodbye to royal reign! Grab this killer t-shirt to support the campaign and help take the republic movement to the main stage.”

The Prince of Wales has pleaded with director Paul Greengrass to make a new Jason Bourne film as he celebrated young creatives in the film, television and gaming industries.

William clasped his hands together and told the film-maker “another Bourne, another Bourne” when he visited Bafta’s offices in central London last week to meet students benefiting from a Bafta bursary in his name.

Greengrass is also a champion of Bafta’s bursary which funds practical support such as buying equipment or paying for driving lessons to enable workers to get to a film set.

After meeting William, the director said about making a new instalment of the Bourne franchise: “Not for me, they need somebody younger, I’ve done my bit. But I hope they get somebody great and young to do it, I think they’re in the process.”

Greengrass directed the second film in the series, The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, The Bourne Ultimatum three years later and Jason Bourne in 2016, the final film in the franchise starring Matt Damon in the lead role.