Creator Ryan Condal told Variety he’s not ruling out Milly Alcock and Emily Carey returning.
Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke replaced the duo as their older counterparts after a time-jump.
Condal says “House of the Dragon” can do things differently to “Game of Thrones.”
When “House of the Dragon” first premiered on HBO, fans quickly became invested in the tumultuous dynamic between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), as the fantasy-drama explores House Targaryen at the peak of its power in Westeros.
The first half of the season follows the duo as teenagers, as Rhaenyra grapples with her burgeoning duties as princess, while Alicent quickly finds herself in a powerful position when King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) marries her after his wife’s death.
But because the story is leading up to the infamous civil war dubbed “the Dance of Dragons,” the series makes a huge time jump between episode five and episode six, skipping ahead by 10 years.
Both Rhaenyra and Alicent have their own children by this time, and they’re now played by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke respectively. This isn’t something the stars have taken lightly, as D’Arcy previously recognized that they have big shoes to fill going into the back half of the season.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that audiences have seen the last of Alcock and Carey, as creator Ryan Condal discussed their potential return when speaking to Variety. “I mean, look, I don’t know. [They] are not a part of the story that we’re telling yet,” he said, before adding, “That’s not a thing that we’re doing right now.”
Condal explained that the writers are treating the prequel series differently.
“‘Game of Thrones’ was not a flashback show,” he said, adding that “House of the Dragon” has the space to get “a little bit more fancy.”
The showrunner went on to say that plans for season two and beyond aren’t concrete, so Alcock and Carey’s return isn’t impossible. “There are things that we haven’t fully sorted out, I’m not closing the door on anything,” Condal said.
The end of episode five sees Rhaenyra marry Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate), and she has a number of children during the 10-year gap, so there’s still plenty of room for Alcock to return and tell more chapters of House Targaryen’s history.
But where the overall story is concerned, showrunner Miguel Sapochnik previously told The Hollywood Reporter that they’re telling the plot in a specific way so audiences understand the growing conflict.
Sapochnik said: “We’re telling a story of a generational war. We set everything up so by the time that first sword stroke falls, you understand all the players — where they are and why they are. All the history is there instead of being told to you in exposition.”
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
Sterling has recovered ground following speculation that the Bank of England might act in response its fall.
But it’s important to note the Bank’s response may not involve raising interest rates in the first instance.
It could try to calm nerves with a statement saying that it is monitoring markets and stands ready to help. That’s the usual first step.
Or, it could use its foreign currency reserves, the rainy day fund, to buy up sterling on international markets, to bid up it’s value. But that typically is a very short-term fix – and while the UK has over £100bn ($108bn) in reserves, that’s less than many other nations.
That’s why, increasingly, investors are betting that the Bank will enact an emergency rate rise, ahead of its next scheduled November meeting – perhaps of 1% or more.
That means investors might be keener to put their money in the UK, boosting sterling, as returns would be higher. It would also curb some of the extra inflationary pressures economists fear the mini-budget plans could unleash.
But the Bank’s rate setters will also be mindful that such a move might be interpreted as a vote of no-confidence in the chancellor’s plans
Rep. Liz Cheney — a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump — has signaled that she may leave the GOP, saying, “If [Trump] is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican.”
“I certainly will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office,” the Wyoming Republican told Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith at the paper’s festival on Saturday.
Cheney also said Saturday that she would be willing to stump for Democrats, the first time she has said so explicitly. The comments were made in response to a question about Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a supporter of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“I am going to do everything I can to make sure that Kari Lake is not elected,” Cheney said, to which Smith asked if that meant potentially campaigning for Democrats.
Cheney’s response: “Yes, it does.”
Cheney has served as the representative for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district since 2017 — but she was defeated soundly in her August primary against Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman.
Cheney is the vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, one of only two Republicans on the committee. Cheney is also one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. Both were positions that appeared to work against her during her campaign for reelection.
Only two of the 10 GOP House members who voted to impeach Trump survived their primary challenges, while three others were defeated and four chose to either retire or not seek reelection. According to NPR, the majority of candidates Trump endorsed in the 2022 midterms have prevailed, and also said that they support the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election.
In her concession speech last month, Cheney said, “We must be very clear-eyed about the threat we face and about what is required to defeat it. I have said since January 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office, and I mean it.”
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) gives a concession speech to supporters during a primary night event on August 16, 2022 in Jackson, Wyoming.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Cheney’s term will end on Jan. 3, 2023. Speculation has brewed around a potential presidential bid for Cheney in 2024, but she has not made any definitive public statements one way or the other on the matter. When Smith asked Cheney whether she planned to announce her candidacy, Cheney deflected:
“What are we going to do to make sure that our kids know what it means to have peaceful transfers of power?” she responded. “And what are we going to do to make sure that we don’t contribute to the unraveling of the Republic? … That’s what I’m focused on.”
Liz Cheney said she’ll do “everything I can” to ensure Trump is not a 2024 presidential nominee.
Speaking at Texas Tribune Fest, she said if Trump is the GOP candidate, she “won’t be a Republican.”
The recently primaried vice chair of the Jan 6 committee has historically voted conservatively.
Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said she would renounce her political party if Trump becomes the next Republican nominee for president.
“I’m gonna make sure Donald Trump — I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure he’s not the nominee,” Cheney told Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune, during the hourlong interview.
“And if he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican,” she added.
Cheney, a second-generation Republican leader, has historically voted conservatively, following the political legacy of her father, Dick Cheney, who served as vice president under Republican President George W. Bush.
The vice chair of the Jan 6 committee has long made clear her separation from her party’s support of former President Trump, despite largely supporting his policies. Newsweek reported Cheney voted with Trump 93% of the time while in office, but the two have publicly feuded over her refusal to endorse him personally.
“Knowing what I know now, I would not have voted for Donald Trump,” Cheney said during the interview.
The recently primaried representative has been a key Republican House member in the investigation into the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol. One political strategist told Insider her campaign loss may enable Cheney to be bolder in the actions she takes against the former president since she no longer has to campaign for a Republican audience that still largely supports Trump.
Representatives for Cheney did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine despite his order to mobilize thousands of extra troops, the secretary general of NATO said on Wednesday, calling the Russian leader’s threat to use nuclear weapons “dangerous and reckless rhetoric.”
Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview that Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two would escalate the conflict and cost more lives, but the move was evidence that Putin had miscalculated since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In an address to Russians earlier, Putin announced he would call up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and backed a plan to annex parts of the country, hinting to the West he was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. read more
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“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all available means to protect our people – this is not a bluff,” Putin said.
Russia possesses “lots of weapons to reply,” Putin added.
Stoltenberg, speaking to Reuters Editor in Chief Alessandra Galloni in New York, said the 30-nation Western defense alliance will stay calm and “not engage in that same kind of reckless and dangerous nuclear rhetoric as President Putin.”
“The speech of President Putin demonstrates that the war is not going according to President Putin’s plans. He has made a big miscalculation,” Stoltenberg said.
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni interviews NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Reuters office in New York City, U.S., September 21, 2022. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
“More troops will escalate the conflict. That will mean more suffering, more loss of lives – Ukrainian lives, but also Russian lives,” Stoltenberg added.
Putin’s speech followed mounting casualties and battlefield setbacks for Russian forces, who have been driven from areas they had captured in northeast Ukraine in a Ukrainian counter-offensive this month and are bogged down in the south.
Stoltenberg said that although Russian troops were ill-equipped and lacked proper command and control, it was hard see the conflict ending in the short term as long as Russia does not accept that Ukraine is a sovereign, independent nation.
“The only way to end this war is to prove that President Putin will not win on the battlefield. When he realizes that, he has to sit down and negotiate a reasonable agreement with Ukraine,” said Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister.
Stoltenberg added that members of the alliance have provided unprecedented support to Ukraine and that the NATO allies now need to replenish their stocks of weapons and ammunition.
As NATO was prepared for a “long haul” in dealing with Putin, it was now in close dialogue with the defense industry to build back its stocks of materiel, Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said China is among the security challenges that NATO needs to face up to but does not see China as an adversary. Stoltenberg also noted China’s “coercive behavior” in the South China Sea and against its neighbors as well as “the way they violate basic human rights.”
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Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in New York and John Chalmers in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Will Dunham
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
In a move that will have significant repercussions for the video card industry in North America and Europe, EVGA today has announced that the company is parting ways from NVIDIA. As a result, the company will not be producing video cards based on NVIDIA’s next-generation of GPUs – and won’t be immediately switching allegiance to AMD or Intel, either. Consequently, NVIDIA is losing their largest add-in board (AIB) in North America, and the broader North American video card market is losing one of its biggest and best-known vendors.
In a brief announcement posted on EVGA’s forums, the company outlined their parting from NVIDIA, while underscoring that this affects the next-generation of video cards, and that EVGA will continue to provide current-gen products and support existing customers.
EVGA will not carry the next generation graphics cards.
EVGA will continue to support the existing current generation products.
EVGA will continue to provide the current generation products.
EVGA is committed to our customers and will continue to offer sales and support on the current lineup. Also, EVGA would like to say thank you to our great community for the many years of support and enthusiasm for EVGA graphics cards.
EVGA Management
Meanwhile, in a briefing attended by Jon Peddie Research and Gamers Nexus, EVGA’s CEO (and founder) Andrew Han laid out some further details about the transition. These are both great pieces and as I’m not going to simply rehash them point by point, I’d encourage readers looking for a first-hand recounting of the briefing to check them out.
As laid out in both pieces, EVGA’s parting from NVIDIA comes as the company’s relationship with NVIDIA has, according to EVGA, soured over the years. Most notably, AIB margins have been slowly shrinking over the past couple of decades, with JPR publishing that gross margins at the AIB partners have fallen from 25% in 2000 to 10% in 2015, and finally an estimated 5% this year. Meanwhile, as NVIDIA has slowly ramped up its own efforts to directly sell its Founders Edition (reference) video cards in Best Buy and other retailers, AIBs like EVGA have been put in a position of directly competing with their partner-turned-supplier.
Jon Peddie Research: AIB Gross Margins v. NVIDIA Gross Margins
This, in turn, has put EVGA in a position where they are taking a loss on selling high-end NVIDIA cards, a significant shift from what are normally the highest margin products sold by video card vendors. And while consumers are benefitting from this in the short term via cheaper video cards, taking a loss of hundreds of dollars per video card is not sustainable – nor is it a viable business practice to begin with.
As a result of these factors (and undoubtedly more tales known only between EVGA and NVIDIA) EVGA has opted to part ways from NVIDIA. This means that EVGA will not be selling video cards based on NVIDIA’s next generation of GPUs, and that EVGA is ramping down production of existing GeForce RTX 30 series cards. According to Gamers Nexus, EVGA expects to run out of current-generation cards for retail by the end of the year, with the company setting aside a remainder of those cards as spares to honor warranty obligations.
EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3: A Money-Losing Product
Perhaps equally notable, EVGA has also made it clear that they are not immediately partnering with a competing GPU vendor, either. So for the moment, at least, this is not going to be a case of EVGA switching allegiances to AMD or Intel. Instead, EVGA is going to be out of the video card market for an indefinite period of time. To be sure, according to GN and JPR, the company has not completely closed the door on partnering with another GPU vendor, but they also aren’t actively pursing the matter right now.
And while this marks a massive cut to EVGA’s business – Gamers Nexus reports that video cards represent 80% of EVGA’s revenue – EVGA is not going out of business. The company still has a successful and well-regarded power supply business, as well as a more niche presence in high-end motherboards and gaming peripherals. This also means that EVGA will continue supporting its existing video card customers even once their remaining video card stockpile runs out, as the company still wants to maintain its sterling reputation for customer service.
Commentary: A Big Loss for Consumers, and a Opening the Door To Vertical Integration
EVGA’s exit from the video card industry represents what is easily the biggest shift in the retail video card landscape in over a decade. EVGA is not the first NVIDIA partner to part ways with the company – BFG and XFX were both major NVIDIA partners back in the 00s as well – but EVGA’s exit would seem to be the biggest yet. According to JPR, EVGA held 40% of the North American retail market, and they were a sizable player in Europe as well. EVGA was NVIDIA’s de facto premiere partner in the west, both in terms of total video card volumes and in terms of mindshare, with a legacy of producing high quality video cards backed with some of the best support in the industry.
As a result, EVGA’s exit is a big loss for consumers and video card enthusiasts overall. While NVIDIA can (and undoubtedly will) shift allocations over to their remaining AIB partners – Zotac is arguably the next best-known NVIDIA-exclusive vendor in North America – this still represents a reduction in competition in video card designs, especially with premium products where EVGA did some of their best work. And none of the remaining AIBs have a reputation for support that matches EVGA’s (though to be sure, reputation isn’t necessarily representative of the real world).
EVGA’s Immediate Future: More Mobos and PSUs
But the full impact to the consumer market is going to hinge on what NVIDIA does next. From EVGA’s briefing it’s clear that there has been some friction between the two companies for quite some time, so while these revelations are new to outsiders, internally the businesses have been at odds for a while now. That means NVIDIA had plenty of time to prepare for EVGA’s split (they were first informed in April), and NVIDIA already has their own retail operations.
In fact, it’s those retail operations that seem to have led the way to what’s happening today. It wasn’t until the Pascal generation/GTX 10 series (2016) that NVIDIA began selling its own retail cards; for the 20 years before that, NVIDIA relied on AIBs to move its products. And even after that point, NVIDIA has purposely limited its reach by only selling cards directly, and later just through Best Buy.
Still, I’ve long wondered how AIBs have felt about NVIDIA going into competition with their own board partners, and now we have an answer, it would seem. EVGA is being driven out in part by NVIDIA’s direct presence on the market, with their Founders Edition cards undercutting EVGA’s products in price. It’s a relationship that by its very nature puts AIBs like EVGA at a disadvantage, as NVIDIA has the better brand recognition (all cards are NVIIDA cards) and much of NVIDIA’s R&D is paid for by their internal need for reference cards. This means that AIBs face additional costs on top of buying hardware from NVIDIA, especially if they want to go for premium designs like EVGA has been apt to do.
In short, NVIDIA’s decision to directly sell video cards, whether intentional or not, is putting the squeeze on AIBs. And NVIDIA-exclusive AIBs like EVGA are the most vulnerable.
EVGA’s exit from the video card market, in turn, opens the door to larger changes in video card manufacturing and distribution. Video card complexity has increased significantly over the years, and consequently so have the R&D costs at every single level. GPUs aren’t just getting more advanced, but they need ever finer PCB routing for memory, more advanced VRMs, bulked up cooling, and more. It’s not unlike the fab market, where every generation ups the ante on costs and discourages the kind of competition that results in lower prices, lower margins, and the inability to afford to play in the next generation of the game.
All of this, in turn, is making vertical integration look more and more appealing. While the AIBs in one form or another have played pivotal roles in the video card market since the dawn of the PC era, offering retail reach and support that the GPU vendors didn’t have or didn’t want to bother with, the actual value they add is, unfortunately, diminishing. Video cards are becoming so complex that, especially at the high end, the best move may very well be to stick with the reference designs. All of which further reduces the value (and uniqueness) AIBs can provide.
EVGA’s Experiments Haven’t Always Panned Out…
In short, this may be the moment where we see video card production pivot to having the GPU vendors themselves sell their cards, without the use of AIBs. So rather than having 10 video cards within a generation and then numerous AIB variations thereof – as is the case now with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 series – we’d have something more akin to desktop CPUs where there’s a dozen or so SKUs provided directly by the manufacturer.
Of course, this has been tried once before, with disastrous results (kids, go ask your parents about 3dfx), so it’s not by any means a sure-fire thing. But EVGA’s departure opens the door to NVIDIA to swoop in and take back 40% of their retail market for themselves, if that’s what they want.
And if NVIDIA doesn’t fill in the gap, then NVIDIA’s remaining AIBs will no doubt be happy to do it. The volume vacuum from EVGA’s exit means almost half the NVDIIA North American video card market is up for grabs. It is a huge opportunity to reshape that landscape and grab the kind of market share that would take years and years to peel away under more normal circumstances. So although a dark day for EVGA, opportunity knocks for the AIBs who remain.
The next-biggest question at this point is whether EVGA will remain in the video card market at all. From the Gamers Nexus and JPR articles it’s clear that EVGA is not keen on immediately jumping back in with a different partner. And, given that the Ethereum Merge just went through this week and video cards across the globe were liberated from their inane toiling (read: Ethereum is no longer relying on proof-of-work for blockchain processing), now is not the time to be making any firm plans.
The broad expectations of the industry are that all of these former mining cards are going to be boomeranging back on to the used video card market, similar to the last crypto hangover but in even larger volumes due to the much longer period this most recent mining boom went on. So the video card market is going to be dealing with an oversupply as it is, meaning that it’s not going to be a great time to be producing more video cards, as even next-gen cards below the flagship level will be competing with their predecessors.
So even if EVGA does ultimately opt to get back in to video cards – and I hope they do – sitting things out while the market corrects itself and digests the sudden surge of used cards is a prudent move. How long all of that will take remains to be seen, but as the current situation took years to get into, it won’t be a fast fix coming back out. In time, it would be a feather in either AMD or Intel’s cap to line up EVGA as a partner, as they bring a level of sophistication and respect that none of their current AIBs possess. Though it should be noted that the overall GPU market share is so significantly tilted in NVIDIA’s favor right now – a 4:1 ratio – that at former production levels EVGA could probably absorb most of the AMD retail market presence, something AMD’s other AIBs would no doubt be unhappy with.
Unfortunately, this exit also underscores how exposed EVGA is in the video card market, since video card sales were 80% of its revenue. The company has other product lines, but these are smaller in volume and all in product categories that are even more commoditized than video cards.
Over the Years EVGA Has Gone Big Into PSUs, In More Ways Than One
EVGA, for its part, has certainly made efforts to diversify over the years, but with limited success. Almost a decade ago I was fortunate enough to be at a business dinner with EVGA and Anand, where Andrew Han asked for our feedback on what sorts of products we thought would be good markets for EVGA to expand into. We ended up making several suggestions, but as today’s EVGA product mix shows, EVGA never found a second market on the same order of magnitude as video cards. Consequently, I’m not surprised to see Gamers Nexus report that EVGA is not planning on expanding into new product categories in the near future; that’s not something they’ve had luck with in better times, never mind going into this likely recession.
Ultimately, while today’s news marks a seismic shift in the video card landscape, it’s also the kind of news where there’s no way to put a positive spin on it. The video card market, for its part, will keep moving right along without EVGA, but the market and consumers are all the worse for EVGA’s departure. Thankfully, this is not EVGA’s eulogy – the company is still staying in business – but I sincerely hope that when we talk about EVGA in the future, it will be for more than just motherboards and PSUs. Video cards are were EVGA has made its name, and it’s still where EVGA does some of its best work.
Enlarge / Using Teams in a browser is actually safer than using Microsoft’s desktop apps, which are wrapped around a browser. It’s a lot to work through.
Microsoft’s Teams client stores users’ authentication tokens in an unprotected text format, potentially allowing attackers with local access to post messages and move laterally through an organization, even with two-factor authentication enabled, according to a cybersecurity company.
Vectra recommends avoiding Microsoft’s desktop client, built with the Electron framework for creating apps from browser technologies, until Microsoft has patched the flaw. Using the web-based Teams client inside a browser like Microsoft Edge is, somewhat paradoxically, more secure, Vectra claims. The reported issue affects Windows, Mac, and Linux users.
Microsoft, for its part, believes Vectra’s exploit “does not meet our bar for immediate servicing” since it would require other vulnerabilities to get inside the network in the first place. A spokesperson told Dark Reading that the company will “consider addressing (the issue) in a future product release.”
Researchers at Vectra discovered the vulnerability while helping a customer trying to remove a disabled account from their Teams setup. Microsoft requires users to be logged in to be removed, so Vectra looked into local account configuration data. They set out to remove references to the logged-in account. What they found instead, by searching the user’s name in the app’s files, were tokens, in the clear, providing Skype and Outlook access. Each token they found was active and could grant access without triggering a two-factor challenge.
Going further, they crafted a proof-of-concept exploit. Their version downloads an SQLite engine to a local folder, uses it to scan a Teams app’s local storage for an auth token, then sends the user a high-priority message with their own token text. The potential consequences of this exploit are greater than phishing some users with their own tokens, of course:
Anyone who installs and uses the Microsoft Teams client in this state is storing the credentials needed to perform any action possible through the Teams UI, even when Teams is shut down. This enables attackers to modify SharePoint files, Outlook mail and calendars, and Teams chat files. Even more damaging, attackers can tamper with legitimate communications within an organization by selectively destroying, exfiltrating, or engaging in targeted phishing attacks. There is no limit to an attacker’s ability to move through your company’s environment at this point.
Vectra notes that moving through a user’s Teams access presents a particularly rich well for phishing attacks, as malicious actors can pose as CEOs or other executives and seek actions and clicks from lower-level employees. It’s a strategy known as Business Email Compromise (BEC); you can read about it on Microsoft’s On the Issues blog.
Electron apps have been found to harbor deep security issues before. A 2019 presentation showed how browser vulnerabilities could be used to inject code into Skype, Slack, WhatsApp, and other Electron apps. WhatsApp’s desktop Electron app was found to have another vulnerability in 2020, providing local file access through JavaScript embedded into messages.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update this post if we receive a response.
Vectra recommends that developers, if they “must use Electron for your application,” securely store OAuth tokens using tools such as KeyTar. Connor Peoples, security architect at Vectra, told Dark Reading that he believes Microsoft is moving away from Electron and shifting toward Progressive Web Apps, which would provide better OS-level security around cookies and storage.
In what is perhaps the ultimate in first-world problems, King Charles is not expected to bestow an HRH honorific on Harry and Meghan Markle’s kids, but they will become prince and princess, it has been reported.
The Sun reports that the new arrangements, which will formalize the names of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, are expected to be confirmed over the coming weeks.
According to a custom begun in 1917, the grandchildren of the king are given prince or princess titles. Great-grandchildren are not, but an exception is made for the grandchildren of the heir to the throne, which is why the Cambridge kids are known as Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
It’s why students of the unwritten British convention have declared that Meghan was wrong when she said in her interview with Oprah Winfrey that her children were denied a title unfairly.
However if they were not to be given the titles now that their grandfather is king, she would be proved quite right. And maybe, her supporters will say, this is what she meant all along.
There is no doubt that under the 1917 rules, their children should automatically become HRHs.
Equally, there is little denying that it would be very odd if Archie and Lilibet were publicly using the HRH title when their parents have been asked not to do so, and have agreed to that request.
King Charles’ office declined to comment on the report to The Daily Beast. The Sussexes’ office has been contacted for comment.
However the Sun says that the decision to not create Archie and Lilibet as His or Her Royal Highnesses (HRHs) has angered the children’s parents.
The Sun quotes a source as saying: “Harry and Meghan were worried about the security issue and being prince and princess brings them the right to have certain levels of royal security. There have been a lot of talks over the past week. They have been insistent that Archie and Lilibet are prince and princess. They have been relentless since the queen died. But they have been left furious that Archie and Lilibet cannot take the title HRH. That is the agreement—they can be prince and princess but not HRH because they are not working royals.”
There are plenty of other non-working royals who are HRHs, of course. Prince Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie spring to mind.
If the palace wants to now change the rules, going forward, to restrict the issuing of HRHs to “working royals” as opposed to grandchildren of the monarch, it is of course its right to do so. But that will represent a significant shift.
And the only people to lose out (at least until Louis and Charlotte have kids) will be Harry’s children.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ability to expel Russian forces from its country as soon as possible now depends largely on Germany and its willingness to send desperately needed armor, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday.
But Germany is balking, causing deep frustration in Kyiv. It is an echo of the earliest days of the invasion, when Berlin was derided for offering helmets when Ukraine needed heavy weapons.
“Germany needs to understand that the timeline for the end of the war is dependent on its position,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Zelensky, told The Washington Post in an interview on Tuesday.
A sweeping counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region has forced Russian soldiers into a hasty retreat and returned more than 1,100 square miles to Ukrainian control, a potential turning point more than six months into the war.
Kyiv believes the requested heavy armor — including battle tanks and personnel carriers — could help shift that turning point into a tipping point. Ukrainian officials are now urging their Western partners to provide them with more weapons immediately.
“The faster we receive this or that weapon from Germany, the faster Germany finally breaks this feeling of closeness with Russia, the faster the war will end,” Podolyak said. He said that Ukraine is specifically asking for armored personnel vehicles and tanks to be able to support its battlefield momentum.
But Germany, so far, has been unwilling to grant the request. The German government did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday night, but has emphasized it is coordinating its response with allies.
“No country has delivered Western-built infantry fighting vehicles or main battle tanks so far,” German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in an event in Berlin this week. “We have agreed with our partners that Germany will not take such action unilaterally.”
Russian troops in big retreat as Ukraine offensive advances in Kharkiv
In a Monday news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Chancellor Olaf Scholz listed what he called “extensive” German weaponry already supplied, saying it had been crucial in the success of the counteroffensive.
Virtually no outside nations have provided tanks to Ukraine, instead sending aging models such as the M113, an armored personnel carrier with tracks that was first fielded by the United States in the 1960s. Denmark provided 54 M113s that were upgraded by Germany and then sent to Ukraine, according to the German defense ministry.
Poland and the Czech Republic have sent a few hundred Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukraine, with Germany promising to backfill their supplies.There is little doubt now that Ukraine could make use of more modern equipment, even if it would require further training.
On Monday, a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said that the Ukrainians have shown in their counteroffensive that they are “quite effective” while using armored vehicles.
“So clearly, that kind of capability is important,” the defense official said, adding that the United States does not have any “specific plans about a specific capability at this point.”
Since the first days of Russia’s military offensive, Germany has been accused of dragging its feet on arms deliveries to Kyiv. Initially, as Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, Berlin said its unique world war history, and long-standing policy, meant it could not send weapons.
Days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, as part of what was seen as a sea-change in the country’s defense policy, Germany said it would send arms. But the government, led by Scholz, a social democrat, has still agonized over sending heavier weapons, and since then has been criticized for the speed and scope of deliveries.
Under public and political pressure, Berlin in April announced that it had approved shipping German-made self-propelled antiaircraft guns to Ukraine, with 24 sent so far. But it has resisted calls to send tanks, including the German-made Leopard 2.
According to German media reports, the manufacturer has 100 ready to send.
During a visit to Kyiv on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Yalta European Strategy conference that Germany is “150 percent at the side of Ukraine and the people of Ukraine.”
But in a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, Baerbock did not commit to supplying the equipment that Kyiv has been requesting. “As the situation on the ground changes, we are reexamining our support and will discuss further steps,” she said.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Kuleba echoed Podolyak, adding that Ukraine was also hoping for Marder infantry fighting vehicles. The Leopard is a tank operated by numerous NATO allies, including Canada, Poland and Turkey, while the Marder is an armored vehicle with tracks that carries infantrymen and does not have a large-caliber “main gun.”
“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba wrote. “Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”
Putin, tone deaf and isolated, pursues war ‘goals’ and refuses to lose
Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats have historically espoused a policy of detente toward Russia, while the chancellor himself is known for an extremely cautious public style.
His government has voiced various arguments for resisting pressure to expand arms deliveries — from not wanting to trigger World War III, to saying Ukrainian troops would need training in order to operate modern weaponry. But often the statements have been contradictory.
Germany had initially said it could not spare any of its Marder infantry fighting vehicles, but later pursued a deal to send them to Slovenia so the eastern European country could send its own Soviet-era tanks onto Ukraine. Berlin entered into a similar arrangement with Poland and the Czech Republic, a swap system meant to get tanks to Ukrainian forces more quickly, but those efforts have largely stalled.
Scholz says he is carefully coordinating deliveries with western partners. And in a 90-minute call with Putin on Tuesday, Scholz said he stressed that Russia must withdraw its troops and respect Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. But even among NATO allies there appears to be some frustration with Berlin.
In an interview with German television station ZDF on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann said she welcomed Germany’s efforts in support of Ukraine but “my expectations are even higher.”
The war in Ukraine has posed a challenge to Germany’s standing in Europe.
In the early days of the war, Germany, long dependent on Russian fossil fuel, was a notable sanctions holdout, particularly on energy. The Baltic nations and Poland called for a full and immediate energy embargo. Germany and others opposed the idea, arguing it would hurt Europe more than the Kremlin.
Though evidence of Russian atrocities in Bucha helped get Germany and the rest of the bloc to phase out most oil imports from Russia, frustration with Berlin has lingered, particularly in Ukraine and among central and eastern European states.
In April, Zelensky rebuffed the offer of a visit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has a complicated history with Ukraine because of his role in the failed Minsk peace accords.
In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called out German energy policy and said that on Ukraine, “Berlin’s hesitation, its inaction, seriously calls into question the value of the alliance with Germany.”
“And we are not the only ones saying that,” he continued. “I am hearing this from quite a few other heads of government in Europe as well.”
Ukraine’s current pressure campaign on Germany comes after the latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of dozens of nations organized by the Pentagon. Ukrainian officials, including Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, attended and briefed the group, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Ukrainian offensive thwarted Russia’s annexation plans in Kharkiv
Germany has defended its record and called attention to its financial and military assistance to Ukraine. In diplomatic and policy circles, however, there is still much talk of Germany’s fading leadership within the European Union and in European security more broadly.
The question now is whether Ukraine’s most recent offensive will change Berlin’s calculus, spurring another major foreign policy shift.
“I understand that there is still a certain conservative thinking, there are certain fears, and there is a certain regret about the missed opportunities in the energy sector with the Russian Federation,” Podolyak said. “We all understand this, but there will be no return to the past. And now, in my opinion, is coming a critical moment for Germany when it is necessary to express its real position, the position of the European leader.”
Morris reported from Berlin, Rauhala from Brussels and Lamothe from Washington. Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Grain shipments from Ukraine are gathering pace under the agreement hammered out by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations in July. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports had sent food prices soaring and raised fears of more hunger in the Middle East and Africa. At least 18 ships, including loads of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, have departed.
The fight: The conflict on the ground grinds on as Russia uses its advantage in heavy artillery to pummel Ukrainian forces, which have sometimes been able to put up stiff resistance. In the south, Ukrainian hopes rest on liberating the Russia-occupied Kherson region, and ultimately Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014. Fears of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station remain as both sides accuse each other of shelling it.
The weapons: Western supplies of weapons are helping Ukraine slow Russian advances. U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) allow Ukrainian forces to strike farther behind Russian lines against Russian artillery. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077’s first major expansion is called Phantom Liberty and will only be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, and Stadia.
Announced during its Night City Wire livestream the expansion marks the first major addition of new content to Cyberpunk 2077 outside of its various patches that fixed the game following its disastrous launch on consoles.
A short teaser trailer (above) was also released, reiterating the 2023 release date that CD Projekt Red had previously announced and also sharing a handful of story details. Keanu Reeves will return as Johnny Silverhand in the expansion, and the trailer sees him warn V about an oath they just took, swearing allegiance to the New United States of America.
“We’re having a lot of fun with [the expansion],” said game director Gabriel Amatengelo. “It’s a new style of plot, a new cast of characters, [and will expand] on a district in Night City where it primarily takes place.”
This wasn’t the only Cyberpunk news to come out of CD Projekt Red’s livestream, however, as the developer also announced more DLC for the game that will be released today, September 6.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Expansion Screenshots
This new content is tied into the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime series that will be released on Netflix next week, and features a handful of new cosmetics and even a new quest that takes place alongside the main Cyberpunk 2077 story.
It also acts as Patch 1.6 and, just as the Phantom Liberty expansion is moving away from the previous PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation, this will also be the final major update coming to those consoles.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
