The Duke of Edinburgh, 98, left King Edward VII Hospital in London around 8:50 a.m. (3:50 a.m. ET) on Tuesday morning, where he was seen walking to a green Range Rover and sitting in the passenger seat. He returned immediately to the Queen's country estate, Sandringham, where the royal family traditionally spend Christmas.
"The Duke of Edinburgh has today left hospital after being discharged by his doctor and is now back at Sandringham," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "His Royal Highness would like to thank everyone who sent their good wishes.
The Queen's husband was hospitalized Friday for "observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition."The admission was a "precautionary measure" on the advice of the duke's doctor, Buckingham Palace said in a brief statement on Friday.
While the hospital stay prompted concern, a royal source told CNN that Philip had not been taken to the hospital in an ambulance and had walked into the building.
Philip retired from public life in 2017 and is rarely seen in public. He is believed to spend most of at Sandringham.
The monarch traditionally celebrates the festive season with members of the royal family at the country estate in rural Norfolk, about 100 miles north of London.
In November, the Queen and her husband marked their 72nd wedding anniversary. Although he no longer carries out engagements, Philip remains patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations.
The Duke of Edinburgh, 98, left King Edward VII Hospital in London around 8:50 a.m. (3:50 a.m. ET) on Tuesday morning, where he was seen walking to a green Range Rover and sitting in the passenger seat.
The Queen's husband was hospitalized Friday for "observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition."The admission was a "precautionary measure" on the advice of the duke's doctor, Buckingham Palace said in a brief statement on Friday.
While the hospital stay prompted concern, a royal source told CNN that Philip had not been taken to the hospital in an ambulance and had walked into the building.
Philip retired from public life in 2017 and is rarely seen in public. He is believed to spend most of at the Queen's Sandringham country home.
The monarch traditionally celebrates the festive season with members of the royal family at the country estate in rural Norfolk, about 100 miles north of London.
In November, the Queen and her husband marked their 72nd wedding anniversary. Although he no longer carries out engagements, Philip remains patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations.
The Queen will use her Christmas Day message to acknowledge that 2019 has been "quite bumpy".
She will say the path is never "smooth" but "small steps" can heal divisions.
It comes after a year of intense political debate over Brexit, as well as a number of personal events affecting the Royal Family.
Her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 98, has left hospital after four nights of treatment for a "pre-existing condition".
Buckingham Palace said the duke had gone to the King Edward VII's hospital on his doctor's advice for "observation and treatment".
Prince Charles told reporters on Monday that hospital staff had looked after his father "very well".
In January, the Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a car crash while driving near the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. He escaped uninjured, but two women required hospital treatment.
In September, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex publicly revealed their struggles under the media spotlight during their tour of southern Africa.
Last month, the Duke of York withdrew from public life after a BBC interview about his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.
She refers to the life of Jesus and the importance of reconciliation, saying "small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome long-held differences and deep-seated divisions to bring harmony and understanding".
"The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference."
Analysis: A coded message?
It has been a year which, at times, may have felt "quite bumpy", so the Queen will say in her Christmas broadcast.
It is a choice of words which will inevitably prompt speculation about what it is that she's referring to.
She does not offer any clarification herself, though the remark is made in the context of overcoming what she calls "long-held differences" and how "small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome deep-seated divisions".
The obvious interpretation is that this is the Queen's - as ever - coded message to the country to try to move on from the divisions of the Brexit debate, but the reference to a "bumpy" year may also be taken to refer to events within her own family after a year which has seen the Duke of Edinburgh's car accident, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex complaining about the difficulties of being in the public eye and the controversies around Prince Andrew.
The head of state - who is publicly neutral on political matters - will also use her message to highlight the 75th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings, and how former "sworn enemies" joined together in friendly commemorations to mark the milestone this year.
In June, the UK hosted an event in Portsmouth commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day and attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Queen said: "By being willing to put past differences behind us and move forward together, we honour the freedom and democracy once won for us at so great a cost."
The broadcast was produced by the BBC and recorded in the green drawing room of Windsor Castle after the general election.
The Queen wore a royal blue cashmere dress by Angela Kelly, and the sapphire and diamond Prince Albert brooch, a present from Albert to Queen Victoria on the eve of their wedding in 1840.
She is filmed sitting at a desk featuring photographs of her family, including one of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and a black-and-white image of the Queen's father, King George VI.
There is also a photograph of of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - perched on and around a motorbike and sidecar - an image used for the couple's Christmas card.
It features a photograph of Harry and Meghan with their seven-month-old son Archie crawling towards the camera, and a message reading: "Merry Christmas and a happy new year... from our family to yours".
The card was emailed to friends and colleagues on Monday, with hard copies sent to family.
The couple are currently spending time in Canada while taking a festive break from royal duties with their son, who was born in May.
Prince Andrew's appearance on BBC Newsnight last month was one of the year's biggest news stories involving the monarchy.
In the interview, Prince Andrew defended his relationship with Epstein, who took his own life in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The prince was heavily criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein's victims and little remorse over his friendship with the disgraced US financier.
He later issued a statement saying he continued to "unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein" and he deeply sympathised with everyone who was affected.
US and Afghan government forces were targeted with IEDs while conducting a raid in the northern province of Kunduz, according to Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid.
The US military early Monday confirmed that a service member was killed in action. The name is being withheld until next of kin is notified.
Between 12,000 and 13,000 US troops are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.
At least 20 Americans have been killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, and there have been more than 2,400 total deaths of US service members since the start of the 18-year war.
The Taliban has continued to carry out attacks despite ongoing peace talks with the US.
President Donald Trump announced late last month during a visit to Afghanistan that peace negotiations between the Taliban and the US had restarted. He had ended formal peace talks in September after a Taliban-claimed attack in Kabul killed a dozen people, including an American soldier. Trump said at the time that Taliban leaders were to travel to the US for secret peace talks, but after the attack he said the meetings were "dead" and called off the negotiations.
CNN's Ryan Browne, Zachary Cohen and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
On Oct. 2, 2018, Saudi agents killed Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. What has been done to hold those responsible accountable?
ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor announced Monday that five people have been sentenced to death in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. But the two most senior officials implicated in the case, including an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were cleared of wrongdoing, the prosecutor said.
The slaying of Khashoggi in October 2018 sparked a global outcry against Saudi Arabia and led to greater scrutiny of a crackdown on dissidents pursued by the crown prince. Khashoggi, who contributed columns to The Washington Post, had been one of Mohammed’s most prominent critics.
Khashoggi was killed soon after he visited the Saudi Consulate to obtain documents that would allow him to remarry. After he was killed, by a team of agents who had flown to Istanbul from Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, according to Turkish and Saudi prosecutors. His remains have not been found.
The verdicts came after a trial in Riyadh’s criminal court that lasted nearly a year and was largely shrouded in secrecy, with court sessions closed to the general public. Human rights groups warned that the lack of transparency made the proceedings unfair, and increased the likelihood that senior officials could escape justice.
Diplomats from the United States, Turkey and several other countries were allowed to attend but told not to reveal details of the trial. Members of Khashoggi’s family also attended, according to Shalaan al-Shalaan, a spokesman for the Saudi public prosecutor.
In addition to the five people who received the death penalty, three more people were sentenced to jail terms totaling 24 years, according to Shalaan, who did not name any of the convicted defendants. The death sentences must be confirmed by higher courts, he added.
The CIA concluded last year that the crown prince had ordered Khashoggi’ s assassination, contradicting Saudi Arabia’s insistence that Mohammed had no knowledge of the plot. However, Saudi authorities had said they were investigating the roles played by two senior aides to the crown prince in organizing and dispatching the team of agents who killed Khashoggi.
Shalaan said Monday that the two senior aides — Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Assiri — were exonerated.
Qahtani, a media adviser to the crown prince and one of the kingdom’s most strident defenders, was “investigated by the public prosecutor and was not charged because of lack of evidence against him,” Shalaan said.
Last year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on 17 Saudi citizens, including Qahtani, saying he was “part of the planning and execution of the operation that led to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Assiri, Saudi Arabia’s former deputy head of intelligence, was initially charged after prosecutors said he was responsible for issuing the order for Khashoggi’s forcible return to Saudi Arabia. Shalaan said Monday that Assiri’s guilt “was not proved.”
Turkish officials insisted that Khashoggi’s killing was planned, even as Saudi Arabia maintained that the murder was a “rogue” operation carried out by overzealous agents who had been instructed to return Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia alive. On Monday, Shalaan said the investigation showed “there was no prior intention to kill at the start of this mission.”
The killing, he added, was a “snap decision.”
Saudi officials had repeatedly called Khashoggi’s killing a mistake and pointed to the trial as evidence that they were responding to international outrage. Human rights advocates said a fair trial was all but impossible in the kingdom, an absolute monarchy with no independent institutions and where the crown prince enjoys unrivaled power.
A report in June by a United Nations investigator called for a U.N.-assisted criminal inquiry, saying that Saudi authorities participated in the destruction of evidence after Khashoggi was killed and that culpability extended beyond the Saudis who are were on trial. The investigator, Agnès Callamard, said Khashoggi’s slaying “constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible.”
Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in text message Monday that Saudi Arabia’s “absolution of its senior leadership of any culpability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises serious concerns over the fairness of the criminal proceedings.”
The kingdom’s handing of the killing — “from complete denial to hanging the murder on lower-level operatives in a trial that lacked transparency, demonstrates the need for an independent criminal inquiry,” he wrote.
US and Afghan government forces were targeted with IEDs while conducting a raid in the northern province of Kunduz, according to Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid.
The US military early Monday confirmed that a service member was killed in action. The name is being withheld until next of kin is notified.
Between 12,000 and 13,000 US troops are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.
At least 20 Americans have been killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, and there have been more than 2,400 total deaths of US service members since the start of the 18-year war.
The Taliban has continued to carry out attacks despite ongoing peace talks with the US.
President Donald Trump announced late last month during a visit to Afghanistan that peace negotiations between the Taliban and the US had restarted. He had ended formal peace talks in September after a Taliban-claimed attack in Kabul killed a dozen people, including an American soldier. Trump said at the time that Taliban leaders were to travel to the US for secret peace talks, but after the attack he said the meetings were "dead" and called off the negotiations.
CNN's Ryan Browne, Zachary Cohen and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
On Oct. 2, 2018, Saudi agents killed Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. What has been done to hold those responsible accountable?
ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor announced Monday that five people have been sentenced to death in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. But the two most senior officials implicated in the case were cleared of wrongdoing because of “insufficient evidence,” the prosecutor said.
The slaying of Khashoggi in October 2018 sparked a global outcry against Saudi Arabia and led to greater scrutiny of a crackdown on dissent pursued by Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s young crown prince. Khashoggi, who contributed columns to The Washington Post, had been one of Mohammed’s most prominent critics.
Khashoggi was killed soon after he visited the Saudi Consulate to obtain documents that would allow him to remarry. After he was killed, by a team of agents who had flown to Istanbul from Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, according to Turkish and Saudi prosecutors. His remains have not been found.
The verdicts came after a trial in Riyadh’s criminal court that lasted nearly a year and was largely shrouded in secrecy, with court sessions closed to the general public. Human rights groups warned that the lack of transparency made the proceedings unfair, and increased the likelihood that senior officials could escape justice.
Diplomats from the United States, Turkey and several other countries were allowed to attend but told not to reveal details of the trial. Members of Khashoggi’s family also attended, according to Shalaan al-Shalaan, a spokesman for the Saudi public prosecutor.
In addition to the five people who received the death penalty, three more people were sentenced to jail terms totaling 24 years, according to Shalaan, who did not name any of the convicted defendants.
The CIA concluded last year that the crown prince had ordered Khashoggi’ s assassination, contradicting Saudi Arabia’s insistence that Mohammed had no knowledge of the plot. However, Saudi authorities had said they were investigating the roles played by two senior aides to the crown prince in organizing and dispatching the team of agents who killed Khashoggi.
Shalaan said Monday that the two senior aides — Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Assiri — were exonerated.
Qahtani, a media adviser to the crown prince and one of the kingdom’s most strident defenders, was “investigated by the public prosecutor and was not charged because of lack of evidence against him,” Shalaan said.
Assiri, Saudi Arabia’s former deputy head of intelligence, was initially charged after prosecutors said he was responsible for issuing the order for Khashoggi’s forcible return to Saudi Arabia. Shalaan said Monday that Assiri’s guilt “was not proved.”
Turkish officials insisted that Khashoggi’s killing was planned, even as Saudi Arabia maintained that the murder was a “rogue” operation carried out by overzealous agents who had been instructed to return Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia alive. On Monday, Shalaan said the investigation showed “there was no prior intention to kill at the start of this mission.”
