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A look in photos of the Trooping the Colour parade, where Princess Kate made her first official appearance in months
Britain put on a display of birthday pageantry Saturday for King Charles III with a military parade that also marked the Princess of Wales‘ first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis early this year.
The annual event was also a show of stability by the monarchy after months in which both the king and Kate, wife of the heir to the throne Prince William, have been sidelined by cancer treatment.
The 42-year-old princess traveled in a horse-drawn carriage from Buckingham Palace down the grand avenue known as the Mall with her children George, 10, Charlotte, 9, and 6-year-old Louis. Bystanders cheered as they caught a glimpse of Kate, dressed in a white dress by designer Jenny Packham and a wide-brimmed Philip Treacy hat.
Huge crowds turn out each June to watch the parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, which begins with a procession involving horses, musicians and hundreds of soldiers in ceremonial uniform from Buckingham Palace.
Prince William, in military dress uniform, rode on horseback for the ceremony, in which troops in ceremonial finery parade past the king with their regimental flag, or “colour.”
Charles, who also is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, traveled in a carriage with Queen Camilla, rather than on horseback as he did last year.
The king inspected the troops from a dais on the parade ground, saluting as elite regiments of Foot Guards marched past.
Five regiments take turns to parade their colour, and this year it was the turn of a company of the Irish Guards, which has Kate as its honorary colonel. The troops, dressed in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats, were led onto the parade ground by their mascot, an Irish wolfhound named Seamus.
After the parade, members of the family went to a Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a fly-by of military aircraft — and delight the crowds below.
In one of the many quirks of British royal convention, Saturday is not the king’s real birthday — that’s in November. Like his mother Queen Elizabeth II before him, Charles has an official birthday on the second Saturday in June. The date was chosen because the weather is generally good, though early sunshine on Saturday gave way to a blustery, rainy day in London.
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7/3: The Daily Report with John Dickerson
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Sam Woodward found guilty of murder as a hate crime in death of Blaze Bernstein
An Orange County, California, jury found 26-year-old Sam Woodward guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement Wednesday for the 2018 death of Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest park.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just one day.
The judge hushed the courtroom as applause was heard during the reading of the verdict.
The prosecution had argued for Woodward to be found guilty of first-degree murder as a hate crime. Defense attorneys argued that Woodward should be convicted for voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of hate-crime allegations.
Jurors also were asked to consider second-degree murder. Closing arguments in the case had begun Friday, two-and-a-half months after the trial began in Santa Ana.
Following the reading of the guilty verdict, Bernstein’s parents shared their gratitude to the jury, to law enforcement and to the “army of supporters and volunteers” who were with them through the six-and-a-half-year ordeal.
“This was a great relief that justice was served and this despicable human, who murdered our son, will no longer be a threat to the public,” his mother Jeanne Pepper Bernstein said. “We are grateful to the jury for their service and their long days and weeks they spent in that service. Justice has been served.”
Sam Woodward was charged with stabbing Bernstein to death a little over six years ago. The Newport Beach man admitted to stabbing Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man, multiple times in 2018, but pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
Orange County prosecutor Jennifer Walker maintained to jurors that Woodward stabbed Bernstein, his former high school classmate, because he was gay, and buried his body at Borrego Park in Lake Forest.
“To dig a grave in that terrain, and bury and clean up and murder someone in an hour and half..that is not someone who is just going, ‘Oh..something happened and I need to figure it out.’ That is determined,” Walker said.
Bernstein, who was a college sophomore, was home visiting his family on winter break in January 2018 when he went missing after going with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, California. Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ home after connecting with him on social media.
Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found buried at the park in a shallow grave.
The case took years to go to trial after questions were raised about Woodward’s mental state and following defense attorney changes. Woodward was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2022.
Woodward took the stand for several days and confessed to jurors that he stabbed Bernstein multiple times.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.
“Now with the verdict in hand, we believe justice has been served and that Blaze’s memory will be honored through this outcome,” Pepper Bernstein said.
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Hurricane Beryl churns past Jamaica
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