Prince Andrew faces no good choice in Epstein accuser case
Britain’s Prince Andrew is likely to do anything he can to avoid giving evidence in a U.S. lawsuit filed by an American woman who alleges that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic say. Andrew may contest the U.S. court’s jurisdiction or ignore the civil lawsuit altogether, taking a chance the court might find him in default and order him to pay damages. No matter which way he goes, he will face constant, unsavory media coverage.
“There’s no good option,” said Albert D’Aquino, a New York attorney who has defended clients in similar cases. The prince has repeatedly denied the allegations in the lawsuit, brought by one of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accusers, Virginia Giuffre.
“I don’t think he will submit to the court’s authority to order him to give a deposition, or to answer questions on which he wishes to demur,” said D’Aquino, a partner at Goldberg Segalla in Buffalo, New York. “He runs too much risk of self-incrimination, which could then spawn a criminal action against him.”
However he decides to respond, the lawsuit filed Monday is another unwanted story for Queen Elizabeth II, reminding people of Andrew’s links to Epstein two years after the convicted sex offender’s death. Britain’s royal family is also still recovering from allegations of racism and insensitivity leveled at them by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, earlier this year.
Buckingham Palace tried to move past the story two years ago, forcing Andrew to step away from royal duties after he gave a disastrous TV interview in which he failed to express regret over his relationship with Epstein or offer sympathy for Epstein’s victims.
Lawyers for Giuffre filed the suit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001, when she was 17. The suit says she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and that the prince knew she had been trafficked by Epstein. Giuffre, now 37, made similar allegations in the past, but the lawsuit is the first time she has directly confronted Andrew in court.
Andrew’s representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a 2019 interview with the BBC, he denied ever meeting Giuffre.
U.S. vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force
A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government coming to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, traveled to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to tell the group there was no point in pursuing victory on the battlefield because a military takeover of the capital of Kabul would guarantee they would be global pariahs. He and others hope to persuade Taliban leaders to return to peace talks with the Afghan government as American and NATO forces finish their pullout from the country.
The insurgents have captured six out of 34 provincial capitals in the country in less than a week, including Kunduz in Kunduz province — one of the country’s largest cities. They are now battling the Western-backed government for control of several others. The success of the blitz has added urgency to the need to restart the long-stalled talks that could end the fighting and move Afghanistan toward an inclusive interim administration. The insurgents have so far refused to return to the negotiating table.
The surge in Taliban attacks began in April, when the U.S. and NATO announced they would end their military presence and bring the last of their troops home.
Nearly 900 buildings destroyed by massive California fire
California’s largest single wildfire in recorded history kept pushing through forestland as fire crews tried to protect rural communities from flames that have destroyed hundreds of homes. Clear skies over parts of the month-old Dixie Fire allowed aircraft to rejoin nearly 6,000 firefighters in the attack this week. The Dixie Fire threatens 14,000 buildings in more than a dozen small communities.
‘We fought a great battle’: Greek official defends fire response
As the worst of Greece’s massive wildfires were being tamed Tuesday, the country’s civil protection chief defended firefighting efforts. Nikos Hardalias said authorities “did what was humanly possible” against blazes that destroyed tens of thousands of acres of forest and hundreds of homes, killed a firefighter and forced more than 60,000 to flee. “We handled an operationally unique situation, with 586 fires in eight days during the worst weather conditions we’ve seen in 40 years,” Hardalias said.
Wildfires in Algeria leave 32 dead, including 25 soldiers
At least 25 Algerian soldiers were killed saving residents from the wildfires ravaging mountain forests and villages east of the capital of Algiers, the president announced Tuesday as the death toll crept up to at least 32. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted that the soldiers saved 100 citizens from the blazes. Eleven other soldiers were burned fighting the fires, four of them seriously, the Defense Ministry said.
Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane told state television the fires in the region of Kabyle were “highly synchronized” and that “leads one to believe these were criminal acts.” Earlier, Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud assessed the situation and also blamed some of the fires on arson.
Report says former PM Cameron made $10M from collapsed firm
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron is reported to have made $10 million from a financial services company that he lobbied for before it collapsed this year. Cameron appeared to have made $4.5 million after cashing in shares from Greensill Capital in 2019, the BBC said. Together with his salary and bonus, he’s believed to have made about $10 million before taxes for work as a part-time adviser for the company over 2½ years. Cameron’s spokesman said the former leader didn’t receive “anything like” the reported sums and maintained Cameron did not have any idea until December 2020 the company was in danger of failure.
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