- Taylor Swift Writes Her Name In No. 1 Spot With $32M Second Weekend; ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Rises To $22M+ Opening – Box Office Update Deadline
- Box Office: ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Makes $2.6 Million in Previews, ‘Eras Tour’ Adds $5.9 Million Variety
- Box Office Predictions: Can the power of Scorsese, DeNiro & DiCaprio take down Taylor Swift? JoBlo.com
- Box Office: Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ Tops Thursday With $5.9M, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Rides to $2.6M in Previews Hollywood Reporter
- Taylor Swifts film dampens Killer of the Flower Moon success? Geo News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: writes
Kharge writes to RS secy general, says won’t be able to attend flag hoisting event in new Parliament building on Sep 17 – Deccan Herald
- Kharge writes to RS secy general, says won’t be able to attend flag hoisting event in new Parliament building on Sep 17 Deccan Herald
- Indian Tricolour Flies High At New Parliament Amid Buzz Over Special Session; Opposition Intrigued Hindustan Times
- Watch: Flag Hoisting Ceremony At New Parliament, Flag Hoisting A Day Before Special Parl Session India Today
- Tricolour hoisting at New Parliament Building Ceremony aligns with PM Modi’s birthday Times of India
- Smriti Irani jabs Cong as Mallikarjun Kharge skips flag event at new Parliament Hindustan Times
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Wagner chief writes to White House over new sanctions
Jan 21 (Reuters) – The head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner published on Saturday a short letter to the White House asking what crime his company was accused of, after Washington announced new sanctions on the group.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that Wagner, which has been supporting Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine and claiming credit for battlefield advances, would be designated a significant Transnational Criminal Organization.
A letter in English addressed to Kirby and posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service read: “Dear Mr Kirby, Could you please clarify what crime was committed by PMC Wagner?”
Kirby called Wagner “a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses”.
Last month, the White House said Wagner had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the report groundless and Prigozhin at the time denied taking such a delivery, calling the report “gossip and speculation”.
Washington had already imposed curbs on trade with Wagner in 2017 and again in December in an attempt to restrict its access to weaponry.
The European Union imposed its own sanctions in December 2021 on Wagner, which has been active in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Mozambique and Mali, as well as Ukraine.
Prigozhin has described Wagner as a fully independent force with its own aircraft, tanks, rockets and artillery.
He is wanted in the United States for interference in U.S. elections, something that he said in November he had done and would continue to do.
Writing by Kevin Liffey;
Editing by Helen Popper
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Siamak Namazi: American held in Iran launches hunger strike and writes to Biden asking him to do more for detainees
Washington
CNN
—
An American wrongfully detained in Iran is calling on President Joe Biden to take notice of US detainees there, launching a hunger strike Monday to mark seven years since he was left behind in a prisoner swap that brought other Americans home.
In a letter to Biden, Siamak Namazi called on the US president to think of him every day for the seven days he intends to carry out the hunger strike commemorating the grim milestone.
“In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the US hostages in Iran home. To no avail. Not only do we remain Iran’s prisoners, but you have not so much as granted our families a meeting,” wrote Namazi, who is one of three Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Iran. Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have also been imprisoned there for years.
“All I want sir, is one minute of your days’ time for the next seven days devoted to thinking about the tribulations of the U.S. hostages in Iran,” Namazi wrote to Biden. “Just a single minute of your time for each year of my life that I lost in Evin prison after the U.S. Government could have saved me but didn’t. That is all.”
“Alas, given I am in this cage all I have to offer you in return is my additional suffering. Therefore, I will deny myself food for the same seven days, in the hope that by doing so you won’t deny me this small request,” he said.
Namazi was blocked from leaving Iran after visiting in July 2015 and underwent months of interrogations before being arrested in October 2015. He was not included in the prisoner swap with Iran in January 2016 that led to the release of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. A fifth American was also separately released at that time.
“When the Obama Administration unconscionably left me in peril and freed the other American citizens Iran held hostage on January 16, 2016, the U.S. Government promised my family to have me safely home within weeks,” Namazi wrote in his letter Monday. “Yet seven years and two presidents later, I remain caged in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, holding that long overdue IOU along with the unenviable title of the longest held Iranian-American hostage in history.”
A National Security Council spokesperson said the Biden administration remains “committed to securing the freedom of Siamak Namazi and we are working tirelessly to bring him home along with all US citizens who are wrongfully detained in Iran, including Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz.”
The spokesperson added that it is “outrageous” for Iran to detain US citizens for political leverage.
“Our priority is bringing all our wrongfully detained citizens home safely and as soon as possible and resolving the cases of missing and abducted US citizens,” the spokesperson said.
The US does not have diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime, though it has called on the government there to release the detained Americans. Tensions between Tehran and the West have further ratcheted in the wake of brutal crackdowns against protests in Iran and the executions of protesters. Over the weekend, Western governments condemned the execution of Alireza Akbari, a dual British-Iranian citizen who was hanged after being accused of espionage and corruption.
Namazi’s brother, Babak Namazi, told CNN that this week is especially painful for his family every year.
“It’s just a horrific week, as to think that seven years, seven whole years have gone by, which could have been avoided if at that time Siamak would have been included with the five other Americans,” Babak said.
In February 2016, Namazi’s father Baquer was lured to Iran under the false premise that he would be able to see his son. He was instead immediately taken into custody at that time. Siamak and Baquer Namazi were sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2016. Baquer was released from Iran after more than six years in October 2022. That same month, Siamak was granted furlough from Evin Prison, but was forced to return a short time later.
Babak said his “family is of course gravely concerned for Siamak’s health and distraught that he has resorted to such desperate measures” as a hunger strike.”
“President Biden, Siamak is begging you, my family is imploring you. Please, please, take what it takes to make those courageous decisions that we know you are capable of,” Babak told CNN.
QB Derek Carr writes farewell message to Raiders, fans
Quarterback Derek Carr has said goodbye to the Las Vegas Raiders, bringing the apparent end to his nine-year tenure with the team.
Carr wrote his farewell message on social media Thursday, saying it “breaks my heart I didn’t get an opportunity to say goodbye in person.”
“We certainly have been on a roller coaster in our 9 years together,” Carr wrote. “From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful and appreciative of the years of support you gave to my family and me. We had our share of both heart breaking moments and thrilling game winning drives, and it always felt like you were there next to me.
“It’s especially hard to say goodbye because I can honestly say that I gave you everything I had, every single day, in season, and in the off season. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but I hope that I was able to leave you with more than a few great memories as Raider fans.”
Adding that the “fire burning inside of me to win a championship still rages,” Carr wrote that he looks forward to playing for a new team.
Carr had signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension with Las Vegas in the spring, but the deal allows the Raiders to cut him within three days of the Super Bowl for only a $5.625 million salary-cap hit.
The 31-year-old Carr was benched for the Raiders’ final two games this season, both losses as they finished 6-11, and he had stepped away from the team to not be a distraction.
Carr joined the Raiders as a second-round pick in 2014, throwing for 35,222 yards, 217 touchdowns and 99 interceptions in 142 games. He played in his only postseason game for Las Vegas in 2021, losing in the wild-card round to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Information from ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez was used in this report.
New Meta AI demo writes racist and inaccurate scientific literature, gets pulled
Enlarge / An AI-generated illustration of robots making science.
Ars Technica
On Tuesday, Meta AI unveiled a demo of Galactica, a large language model designed to “store, combine and reason about scientific knowledge.” While intended to accelerate writing scientific literature, adversarial users running tests found it could also generate realistic nonsense. After several days of ethical criticism, Meta took the demo offline, reports MIT Technology Review.
Large language models (LLMs), such as OpenAI’s GPT-3, learn to write text by studying millions of examples and understanding the statistical relationships between words. As a result, they can author convincing-sounding documents, but those works can also be riddled with falsehoods and potentially harmful stereotypes. Some critics call LLMs “stochastic parrots” for their ability to convincingly spit out text without understanding its meaning.
Enter Galactica, an LLM aimed at writing scientific literature. Its authors trained Galactica on “a large and curated corpus of humanity’s scientific knowledge,” including over 48 million papers, textbooks and lecture notes, scientific websites, and encyclopedias. According to Galactica’s paper, Meta AI researchers believed this purported high-quality data would lead to high-quality output.
Enlarge / A screenshot of Meta AI’s Galactica website before the demo ended.
Meta AI
Starting on Tuesday, visitors to the Galactica website could type in prompts to generate documents such as literature reviews, wiki articles, lecture notes, and answers to questions, according to examples provided by the website. The site presented the model as “a new interface to access and manipulate what we know about the universe.”
While some people found the demo promising and useful, others soon discovered that anyone could type in racist or potentially offensive prompts, generating authoritative-sounding content on those topics just as easily. For example, someone used it to author a wiki entry about a fictional research paper titled “The benefits of eating crushed glass.”
Even when Galactica’s output wasn’t offensive to social norms, the model could assault well-understood scientific facts, spitting out inaccuracies such as incorrect dates or animal names, requiring deep knowledge of the subject to catch.
I asked #Galactica about some things I know about and I’m troubled. In all cases, it was wrong or biased but sounded right and authoritative. I think it’s dangerous. Here are a few of my experiments and my analysis of my concerns. (1/9)
— Michael Black (@Michael_J_Black) November 17, 2022
As a result, Meta pulled the Galactica demo Thursday. Afterward, Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun tweeted, “Galactica demo is off line for now. It’s no longer possible to have some fun by casually misusing it. Happy?”
The episode recalls a common ethical dilemma with AI: When it comes to potentially harmful generative models, is it up to the general public to use them responsibly, or for the publishers of the models to prevent misuse?
Where the industry practice falls between those two extremes will likely vary between cultures and as deep learning models mature. Ultimately, government regulation may end up playing a large role in shaping the answer.
A NURSE WRITES: Let’s Talk About Our Gross Hands | Lost Coast Outpost
Ignaz
Semmelweis, everyone!
It’s
time for your monthly COVID column, and Ignaz Semmelweis isn’t a
strange Lewis-Lusso holiday greeting (yet), but a true hero of
healthcare.
Semmelweis! Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia.
Whether
you are still worried about COVID, over it for myriad reasons, or
develop a blank, thousand-yard stare when you have to think about it,
I hope you’ll still find value in this quick trip through history.
Ignaz
Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor in the mid-1800s, and he noticed a
problem in the two maternity wards at his teaching hospital. Between
1840 and 1846, the maternal mortality rate for the midwives’ ward
was 36 per 1000 births, while the mortality rate for the doctors’
ward was 98 per 1000 births.
I’ll
resist making the easy doctor joke to continue the tale: Semmelweis
found that the doctors sometimes delivered babies after performing
autopsies. After instituting a handwashing policy (not in general
mind you, just after autopsies) the mortality rate for the doctors
dropped to the same level as the midwives.
Medical
professionals kicked this idea back and forth for a while before
finally deciding that regular hand washing was a good idea, and
instituting it as a standard … over a hundred years later, in the
1980s!
This
is why I get people who don’t fully embrace COVID protocols like
masking, vaccination and ventilation. In fact, if you promise to wash
your hands regularly, you will be taking the most important step to
not getting sick in most circumstances. Unfortunately, most of us are
TERRIBLE about hand hygiene.
A
lot of groups have looked at hand hygiene compliance, through surveys
and observation. The areas that SHOULD have the highest compliance
levels for hand hygiene are “hands down” healthcare and food
service. It’s not offensive to ask your healthcare provider if they
have washed their hands. How about the dude making your sandwich? If
you’d ask that guy, ask your doctor as well.
A
wise infection preventionist once told me: “Imagine everything you
touch has ketchup on it, and that will keep you washing your hands
regularly.”
“But
Michelle, WHY do I need to wash my hands???” Welp, how do
you think we get germs?
Why
do some people always get a sore throat or a cold in the winter? Is
it the cold weather? Going out for a minute without a coat? How about
wet hair? Forgot to take your vitamin C?
Nope — colds
are caused by viruses, not by being underdressed or “exposed” to
the elements with wet hair. The common cold (along with some other
unsavory viruses) is transmitted through the business that flies out
of the noses and mouths of people who have the frequent and sudden
urge to sneeze — like when they have a cold.
Some
viruses stay viable (living) for hours to days on surfaces. It has
been recommended that we regularly clean or disinfect “high-touch”
surfaces. High-touch surfaces are just that — we touch them all of
the time — doorknobs, toilet handles, phones, keyboards, refrigerator
doors, light switches, countertops, etc.
Viruses
land on these surfaces or hang out on the hands of those carrying
them. If you wipe your nose, shake the hand of a colleague you
haven’t seen in a while, then grab a cup of coffee from the break
room, you’re both totally normal and spreading germs.
I
challenged some people during Infection Prevention Week (SO much
fun!) to “follow the germ”
or count how many surfaces they had touched for the first hour of
work. Then I asked them to try to count how many times they touched
their faces. There were some surprises. Some studies have shown 23
face-touches per hour! Yikes — I’m glad I wear glasses and my mask
a lot, because I probably go for the areas of my face I’m likely to
deposit a germ in — my eyes, nose or mouth.
You
probably won’t be able to train yourself not to touch your face — believe me, I have tried. So, the next best thing you can do is
regularly wash your hands. This will not only keep your hands clean,
but also keep germs off that quality mask you are breathing through.
So,
what are some things that can keep us from getting sick?
-
Number
1: HAND HYGIENE! Wash your hands at least 20 seconds with soap and
water — or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — before and after
eating, after using the toilet, after caring for or cleaning up after
an animal, child or other dependent being or someone who is sick,
before, during and after preparing food, before touching your face,
after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, after being in public
places, after touching garbage — SO many opportunities! -
Clean
and disinfect high-touch surfaces (always read the manufacturer
instructions for use on those cleaning products!) -
Avoid
touching your eyes, nose and mouth -
Avoid
close contact with people who are sick
If
it’s taken you a while to get on board with preventative health
measures, don’t feel bad — it took doctors over a hundred years to
finally wash their hands. But now that you know, fall is a great time
to start. Stay safe and healthy!
###
Michelle
Lewis-Lusso (she/her) is an Infection Prevention and Control nurse at
United Indian Health Services, serving the 11,000+ clients and staff
at their seven area clinics. Michelle hopes you wash your hands AND
don’t go out with wet hair.
Exclusive: Russia is prepared to quit Black Sea grains deal, writes to UN with demands
GENEVA, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Moscow has submitted concerns to the United Nations about an agreement on Black Sea grain exports, and is prepared to reject renewing the deal next month unless its demands are addressed, Russia’s Geneva U.N. ambassador told Reuters on Thursday.
The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, paved the way for Ukraine to resume grain exports from Black Sea ports that had been shut since Russia invaded. Moscow won guarantees for its own grain and fertiliser exports.
The agreement helped stave off a global food crisis: Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s biggest grain exporters and Russia is the number one fertiliser exporter. But Moscow has repeatedly complained about its implementation, arguing it still faces difficulty selling fertiliser and food.
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In an interview with Reuters, Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Moscow had delivered a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday setting out a list of complaints. U.N. officials are due in Moscow on Sunday to discuss the renewal of the agreement.
“If we see nothing is happening on the Russian side of the deal – export of Russian grains and fertilisers – then excuse us, we will have to look at it in a different way,” he said.
Asked if Russia might withhold support for the grains deal’s renewal over the concerns, he said: “There is a possibility…We are not against deliveries of grains but this deal should be equal, it should be fair and fairly implemented by all sides.”
Gatilov declined to make a copy of the letter available.
U.N. speokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “We remain in constant touch with Russian officials, as well as with officials from the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States in order to remove the last obstacles to facilitate the export of Russian grain and fertiliser.”
He said Guterres was committed to those efforts and to having an extended and expanded Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Gatilov, a career diplomat who was deputy minister of foreign affairs before taking up the Geneva post, said that he saw fading prospects for a negotiated settlement to the nearly eight month war in Ukraine. He cited what he called “terrorist acts” such as an explosion on a bridge to Crimea.
“All this makes it more difficult to reach a political solution,” he said.
Washington has said that Russian claims to be open to talks on the war’s future amount to “posturing” as it continues to strike Ukrainian cities. read more
Asked about the prospect of a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden, Gatilov said it was not feasible given the levels of U.S. military support for Ukraine. “It makes the U.S. a part of the conflict,” he said.
However, he was more upbeat on other negotiated outcomes such as on aid access and a further prisoner swap, calling these “a possibility”. He said a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross had met with Russia’s defence ministry in Moscow recently about a possible swap, without giving further details. The ICRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Reporting by Emma Farge
Editing by Peter Graff
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A NURSE WRITES: Exercise Every Day Keeps the COVID Away | Lost Coast Outpost
Image generated by DALL-E, an artificial intelligence.
The
Pandemic is officially over. At least that is the impression we just
received. A declaration of the end of the pandemic is now causing
quite a stir.
So
that’s it? We are done with all that?
Experts
are saying that it is highly likely that most of us have been
infected with COVID-19, and we have a fair number of people
vaccinated. That means that for most of us, the threat of COVID-19 is
not the same as it was a year or two ago. That said, infections from
COVID continue to decline slowly, but more than 300 Americans still
die from COVID every day. Those numbers don’t really sound like
it’s over, do they?
What
cannot be over just yet — especially if you have loved ones who are
vulnerable to severe disease or death from COVID-19 — are good hand
hygiene, common sense approaches to going out into crowded areas
(wear a mask!) and getting tested. Vaccines and boosters have helped
to keep people from severe disease and death. For those 70 and older,
or those with just about any underlying health condition —
including, dare I say it, inactivity — the pandemic is not over,
and we need to talk about it.
That’s
right, exercise.
Fall
is when we start spending more time indoors. It gets dark earlier,
and it’s easier to go from your desk to your couch to your bed, with
lots of food in between.
If
you’re still reading a COVID column in late 2022, nodding along with
my recommendations for masking, testing, and ventilation, you’re
serious about your health and the health of those around you. So, if
you follow safety recommendations but haven’t been exercising, you’re
basically putting a bigger bumper on your car but not changing the
oil or putting air in the tires. That’s a recipe for bad
outcomes.
A
study from March of almost two million adults in 10 countries showed
that those who participated in regular physical activity every week
had an 11 percent lower risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus
responsible for COVID-19. They also had 36 percent lower risk of
hospital admission, 44 percent lower risk of severe COVID-related
illness, and 43 percent lower risk of death from the virus than those
of the same age who were more sedentary.
Cold
and flu season, colder weather, winter months and holiday time can be
challenging for people to stay active. I know for myself, I need to
get up and move more. I like to travel, and I am not currently in
travel shape. I need help getting there though, so I reached out to
my colleagues here at UIHS who are in the “moving” business. They
sent me some great tips that I’d like to share with you. These
ideas were submitted by Ryan Matteri, UIHS Fitness Coordinator and
Dennis Hernandez, Physical Therapy Provider:
The
exercises listed below are merely suggestions and are not a “one
size fits all” solution. Injuries can make exercising more
difficult. Some of these suggestions may need be avoided if you
experience pain during the movements or have a recent injury –
consult with your primary care provider if you’re not sure.Regular
physical activity is one of the best things that you can do for your
health. Thirty minutes of movement can help reduce your risk of chronic
disease, enhance your fitness level, prevent injuries, and improve
your overall mental/physical health.Unfortunately, as the
winter months are approaching, the weather sometimes does not
cooperate with our outdoor activities.Here are 5
tips to find opportunities for movement throughout your day when you
are stuck inside this winter:1. Supported squats at
the kitchen counter, sit-to-stands from a stable chair or sofa,
push-ups, lunges, and abdominal crunches. These traditional exercises
require minimal space and are great for working specific body
parts.2. Walk around the house during commercial breaks
during your favorite TV show or movie.3. Use the stairs.
A few brisk trips up and down stairs will soon get your heart
pumping. Increase the speed for increased benefits. Make as many
trips as you can.4. Complete chores around the house.
Many household activities burn up calories at a fast rate and do a
good job of working different muscles.5. Dance to some
upbeat music. Ten minutes spent dancing to your favorite tunes
morning and night can go a long way to meeting physical activity
targets. And it’s fun!If you find yourself
skipping out on exercise because of difficulty standing, then you
should consider chair exercises. Our physical therapists can guide
you through a routine, and there are great options available
online
as well.
I
encourage you to move more, for both your physical AND mental health.
Isolation, loneliness, depression, fear and anxiety have taken their
toll on many of us. While this is getting better, it’s important to
be honest with yourself about your mental health and reach out for
support if you need it. A little bit of exercise can go a long way
towards improving your mental state, and help your body feel better
too.
If
you’re serious about preventing poor outcomes from COVID-19,
rededicate yourself to fitness and a healthy lifestyle.
###
Michelle
Lewis-Lusso (she/her) is an Infection Prevention and Control nurse at
United Indian Health Services, serving the 11,000+ clients and staff
at their seven area clinics. Michelle isn’t trying to be Ms. Olympia,
but she may want to hike Mt. Olympia someday, so she’ll keep
exercising.
The Queen enjoyed walks, picnics and family in months before her death, writes REBECCA ENGLISH
The Queen’s last summer was one of her happiest of recent years, entertaining a string of family and friends at Balmoral.
Her Highland estate – every purple-hued sprig brimming with memories of her beloved Philip – had been a huge source of comfort after the most difficult of times.
One source with close links to the Royal Household told me recently that she had not been suffering from any chronic condition. Another said: ‘She’s lost a lot of weight and has been feeling all the aches and pains that a 96-year-old woman would be expected to feel and has suffered terrible problems with her sore feet.’
But there is no doubt that Her Majesty’s sudden frailty and health decline came as a shock to many of those around her.
Moreover, the loss of her husband of 73 years combined with the drama over Harry and Meghan’s acrimonious departure from the family and the deeply troubling allegations swirling around Prince Andrew took a ‘deep emotional toll’ over the past two years.
One insider told me recently: ‘Her Majesty was always discreet but you can see with your own eyes what a toll it has taken on her emotionally. It brought her great heartache and has not been an easy time.’
Still, as the Queen arrived in Balmoral at the end of July – moving firstly into the smaller, more comfortable seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge on Royal Deeside, before transferring to Balmoral Castle a mile away on August 9 – the Highland air seemed to bring a sense of comfort and relief.
Accompanying the Queen were the handful of loyal staff who vowed to stay with her until the end.
Life of service: The Queen, with her stick and a bruise on her hand, smiling on Tuesday as she greeted outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson and his successor Liz Truss
Beloved bolthole: Balmoral Castle, where the Queen spent her last hours, was a huge comfort to her during her lifetime
Her 6ft 4in Page of the Backstairs Paul Whybrew – ‘Tall Paul’ – and Barry Mitford, her Serjeant-at-Arms were with her, as always. The two men were her regular companions, bringing her the Racing Post each day and companionably sitting with her to watch her favourite sport on the television.
Also by her side was Angela Kelly, the Liverpudlian dock worker’s daughter who rose to become her right-hand woman with the title of Personal Assistant, Adviser and Curator to Her Majesty The Queen. Fiercely protective Angela – wittily dubbed ‘AK47’ – did not leave her side.
‘She’s been wrapping the Queen up in cotton wool,’ a source told me over the summer. ‘She’s been very overprotective and ensuring that Her Majesty hasn’t been doing too much.’
One source with intimate knowledge of the goings-on at Balmoral told me that the Queen spent her last few weeks enjoying the country life she adored.
She and Philip were at their happiest in the Highlands, where they enjoyed the existence of a fairly normal married couple – it was no accident that she chose to release a picture of them together there after his death.
Indeed, the Queen was seen only a few weeks ago walking her corgis in the gardens, slowly and cautiously (like many elderly people she had a fear of falling over, particularly in public, which is one of the reasons she was so careful about what engagements she chose to undertake in public) but out in the fresh air nonetheless.
Her Majesty arriving at Balmoral Castle for the start of her summer break on July 21
She and Philip were at their happiest in the Highlands, where they enjoyed the existence of a fairly normal married couple
The Queen spent her final hours in the bosom of her family, at the place where she spent so many happy times with her beloved Philip
The family have been regularly visiting the Scottish castle for more than half a century
A ‘stream’ of family came to see her, most recently the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their lively three youngsters who ‘Gan Gan’ – as the children called their great-grandmother – found such a tonic. The notable absentees were the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a story in itself.
The late monarch was particularly comforted by the regular presence of Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, whom she adored like a second daughter, and her late sister Princess Margaret’s two children, Lady Sarah Chatto, and the Earl of Snowdon, of whom she was so fond.
‘It’s been a very typical and jolly summer at Balmoral, lots of walks and picnics and BBQs. It has followed the pace long set by the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh. Obviously the Queen hasn’t been present throughout but she has taken part and been seen,’ a source said at the time.
Another royal source who encountered the Queen just days ago described her to me as being in ‘genuinely good spirits’. ‘I know you would expect me to say that but she really was,’ they said, suggesting that her decline overnight on Wednesday was sudden.
On Tuesday she met not just her outgoing and incoming prime ministers but undertook an investiture and some light paperwork.
And yet, behind the scenes, concern was rapidly growing among Buckingham Palace’s most senior staff as to how much the Queen could have been expected to do when she returned to Windsor Castle.
‘They were already heavily pacing her and warning people that it had now come to the point that if she needed to do X, she couldn’t do Y, and that engagements were the exception not the rule.
‘But there has been an unmistakable shift in the strength and urgency of talks in recent weeks,’ my source said at the time.
The Queen attends an audience with Switzerland’s president at Windsor Castle on April 28
(Left to right) The Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace on December 8, 2016
The Queen was seen only a few weeks ago walking her corgis in the gardens – something she has been doing for decades
Prince William is now heir to the throne of the United Kingdom after Prince Charles’s accession following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Above: The Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony with Prince Charles, Prince William and his children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in June
Indeed, I can reveal that over the last fortnight there were high-level discussions between senior courtiers at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House – the likes of her private secretary Sir Edward Young, his opposite number at Clarence House, Sir Clive Alderton, and Master of the Household, Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt – about exactly what operational duties the Queen would have been able to discharge when she returned to Windsor in the autumn, if any.
‘It had become abundantly clear to everyone that, while mentally agile, she physically wasn’t up to the strain of the role and there have been serious discussions about what duties she would, if at all, be able to discharge,’ my source said at the time.
‘The mechanics were already being drawn up to ensure the Prince of Wales could take over most of her day-to-day responsibilities.’ In other words, a full regency in all but name.
Significantly, on Tuesday night, I received a call from a friend of a friend telling me: ‘It doesn’t look like the Queen will be returning from Balmoral in October. Everyone at Windsor is deeply worried about her.’
It had long been suggested, I should explain, that after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen would move almost full-time to Scotland.
It’s something I know was discussed within the Royal Household but was always understood to be unlikely – for practical reasons as much as anything. Buckingham Palace refused to comment.
Such matters have now been overtaken by yesterday’s events. But we can surely all take a crumb of comfort that the Queen spent her final hours in the bosom of her family, at the place where she spent so many happy times with her beloved Philip, gazing over the Scottish Highlands that she held so dear.