More than 300 travelers on United flight 839 are believed to remain at Pago Pago International Airport after the pilot had to land the plane unexpectedly due to an engine issue.
The plane landed at the airport which is located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Pago Pago, in the village and plains of Tafuna on the island of Tutuila.
United Airlines said arrangements were being made to accommodate the plane passengers on the island.
A statement from the airline read: “Today’s flight diverted to Pago Pago to address a mechanical issue.
“We’re making use of our facilities, including available hotel options, to accommodate our customers, and will fly in a new aircraft to the island so they can finish their trip to Sydney soon.”
But it isn’t all bad news as the passengers – who were travelling from Los Angeles – were treated with a trip to a beach and beers, which actually sounds like an idyllic way to ring in the new year.
Family members of the stranded passengers have taken to Twitter to shed light on how they’re being cared for on the island.
“My daughter is now stranded,” one man on Twitter shared. “They (passengers) showered at hanger, got tour of island and drinking beers on deserted beach.”
Members of the crew onboard noticed a potential oil leak in an engine of the Boeing 787-9, The Guardian reports.
The replacement aircraft was scheduled to depart Pago Pago at 3am on 31 December (local time) and arrive in Sydney at 7.15am on 1 January, meaning passengers would miss out on a New Year’s countdown in the Australian city.
The replacement plane that United Airlines has sent – which flies as #UA3032 – not yet arrived on the island, Airlive reports.
Because American Samoa is to the east of the international dateline, passengers would not have a midnight on 31 December. Not long after take off, they’d find themselves in the early hours of 2023, shortly after 4am on Sunday, 1 January.
A grandmother, Leonie Butta, tracked the flight as her 30-year-old son and two granddaughters were onboard. They were travelling from Vancouver to Sydney.
Butta praised the decision to land the plane on American Samoa land and told The Guardian that her son’s experience on the island had been ‘pleasant’.
“Samoan people are just brilliant. Apart from being one of the most beautiful countries in the world, they’ll just say, come right into our home,” she told The Guardian.
“They’ve brought them food, found them somewhere to stay with a pool, and my son was saying they even brought them beer.
Whoopi Goldberg faced intense backlash and was forced to apologize this week after repeating a false claim about the Holocaust — and sources claim her friends are pleading with her to step away from her gig on The View for months.
An insider said before the scandal this week, Goldberg had been urged by friends to leave her longtime spot as co-host of the daytime talk show.
“Whoopi has been out of control. Her health has been suffering, and she always seems to be ready for a brawl,” said a source. “It’s at the point where the constant fighting is literally killing her.”
Though Whoopi, 67, has lorded over The View’s table since 2007, insiders said producers, co-workers, and even close friends want her to pack it in.
Whoopi clashed with co-hosts Sunny Hostin, 54, Joy Behar, 80, and Ana Navarro, 51, in January 2022 after outrageously insisting the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust was “not about race!”
Her on-air tirade earned her a two-week suspension — without pay. “She’s not in a good place at all, and her friends are begging her to walk away to save herself,” said a source.
Meanwhile, sources spill the comedian’s rival panelists are eager to show her the door!
“Whoopi seems to be picking fights all the time. She makes things very toxic. It’s clear she’s very unhappy,” added the insider.
Sources said backstabbing Joy has been actively campaigning for Whoopi to get the boot. A source claimed producers have “grown tired of Whoopi’s constant on-air episodes and believe they are driving viewers away.”
After a second bout with COVID in November, exhausted Whoopi struggled to read cue cards upon her return, said an insider, who spilled, “Everyone’s begging her to step aside for her sake and the sake of the show.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Whoopi faced backlash after making additional remarks about the Holocaust that many found insensitive.
She said, “Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision.”
Days later, she apologized for the remarks. She said, “It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments, especially after talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in. I believe that the Holocaust was about race, and I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people.”
A horrifying video shows Austin tech entrepreneur Rajan ‘Raj’ Moonesinghe being shot dead by local police as he inspected the perimeter of his home for an intruder with a rifle in his hands.
Moonesinghe, 33, a successful tech entrepreneur who had moved to the wealthy South Austin neighborhood about five years ago, was killed on the front porch of his home on November 15. As he lay dying, he said the words: ‘It wasn’t me.’
At around 12.30am, Moonesinghe told a neighbor that someone was in his house and he was going to call 911, the WSJ reported.
Police arrived on the scene just five minutes later, moments after Moonesinghe fired two shots into his own living room – and four shots were fired that killed the businessman.
Across the street from his home, a private security guard for his neighbor had already called the police to report what Moonesinghe was doing.
The guard said in a call to a dispatcher: ‘He almost seems to be scared of something inside his house.
‘He’s pointing the rifle at the interior of his home,’ he said, before Moonesinghe called into his living room and fired shots inside.
Nearly as soon as they had arrived, Officer Daniel Sanchez shouted: ‘Drop the gun,’ though he began firing before he’d finished the sentence.
It is likely that Moonesinghe hadn’t heard anything before being hit since bullets travel faster than the speed of sound.
The 33-year-old of Sri Lankan descent was taken to the hospital, where he died shortly after from his injuries. No one else was harmed during the encounter and police did not find an intruder in the South Austin home.
The three reporting officers said they could see into the house because the front door was open.
According to a preliminary autopsy ordered by the victim’s family, Moonesinghe was hit four times. A full medical report is yet to be released by the county medical examiner.
The Austin Police Department has yet to comment on the shooting. Sanchez has been a licensed officer with the force for nearly three years. With him on the scene were Officers Stephen Markert and Luis Brito.
The shooting is still under investigation and Officer Sanchez is on administrative leave. His attorneys said he ‘followed his training in order to protect lives.’
The department has launched two investigations, one criminal conducted by the Special Investigations Unit and the District Attorney’s office, and one administrative, conducted by the department’s Internal Affairs Unit.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler called the fatality a tragedy, adding that he is waiting for more information before he arrives at an opinion.
‘I have a lot of questions, as I know the family does,’ he said. ‘Why did it happen?’
Together with his older brother Johann, Raj ran a financial technology company called InKind which provides upfront financing to restaurants.
The company has an annual revenue of $48million and had plans to increase its 50-person Austin staff to 180 employees by the end of 2023.
Following his brother’s tragic death, Johann is now unsure about the company’s future and is reluctant to ask anyone to relocate to Austin following the fatal shooting, because of safety concerns.
The goal of the organization is to prevent shootings like that of his brother from occurring again.
This could include investing in non-lethal police tools, implicit bias training, and putting up billboards across the country warning tech startups not to move to Austin.
Johann has vowed to use all of his resources to ensure no one else has to go through what he and his family are going through – adding that he would prefer to work with the city, ‘but if they’re not going to work with us, I will outspend them.’
The effort has raised $27,000 so far, not including a $1million commitment from Doug Ludlow, the CEO of small business-assistance company MainStreet, who had known Raj since he was a boy.
Ludlow told the Wall Street Journal that if Austin is unable to square its police force issues, there are other US cities in line to become the next startup hub.
‘There is massive competition to create new startup hubs. If it’s not a safe community, especially for people of color, you will not create a tech hub here. Full stop,’ he said.
‘There are a lot of victims in our position out there that I’m sure have gone through this and they haven’t had the resources we have,’ Johann said.
‘We’ll do whatever it takes to get our voice heard. When Raj was buried, I made a promise to him. I said, “Raj, I will be an unstoppable force of justice for you. And I will make sure this doesn’t happen to another family.”‘
Raj’s devastated family and friends launched a petition to indict officer Sanchez that has so far accrued nearly 7,000 signatures.
‘Officer Sanchez’s action killed our friend, and he must be held accountable,’ reads the petition, which goes on to describe Raj as ‘a deeply generous and kind person.’
‘Raj was not afforded even a millisecond to comply with orders to put down his rifle. He was defending his home, did not hurt anyone and, as his family/friends, we know he would have put down the gun if given the chance.’
A linked petition provides instructions for calling District Attorney Jose Garza to ask for an update on the case and why, more than 30 days after the fatal shooting, there has been no statement made by the office about the case proceeding to a grand jury.
Buccaneers backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert became an unexpected hero Thursday when a helicopter crashed into Hillsborough Bay in Tampa.
At a news conference Friday, Gabbert said that he and his two brothers were cruising nearby on jet skis, checking out from afar some of the sail boats at a yacht club, when they heard a “faint noise” south of Davis Island and rushed toward it.
“I just remember looking to the West and seeing it almost looked like a crew boat in the water that had broken up in about four pieces, and I vaguely remember seeing like two yellow life jackets, so I was like, ‘All right we gotta go check this out,'” Gabbert said, with local authorities standing behind him like proud parents.
The brothers arrived at the crash to find a sinking helicopter and multiple people in need of saving.
“The youngest kid had just came up and said he was pinned in there and I asked if anyone else was trapped and then I called 911, tried to remain as calm as possible,” Gabbert said.
He was able to get two of the people out of the water and onto his jet ski, while his brothers helped a third person. A fourth occupant was helped out of the water by authorities, who Gabbert said arrived in record time.
Everyone survived.
Fox Sports identified the people on the helicopter as 28-year-old Hunter Hupp, his parents Wes and Lisa, and the pilot.
“Let me tell you, helicopters sink really fast,” Hupp told the network Friday morning. “We learned that rather quickly.”
The pilot and three passengers were on a helicopter tour of the area when they heard a loud bang and the helicopter lost power, the Tampa Police Department said in a statement, while posting video of the rescue mission on social media.
The pilot made an emergency landing into the water.
Tampa Bay police Officer Dan Spears said Gabbert and his brothers “had actually just about completed the rescue” when he arrived.
“It was a pretty impressive feat, no doubt,” Spears said. “They were very calm — great job on that … One of the most dangerous circumstances on an aircraft is a water landing just due to the inversion of a helicopter, and trying to escape that, and not get trapped in, so it was a very amazing circumstance that everybody got out.”
Gabbert said he raced his jet ski to shore, where the fire department met them.
“I was like, just please hold on tight,” he said he told his two riders. “We’ll get to the beach quick and get you dried off, get you a coffee and warmed up.”
Tampa Bay police made Gabbert an honorary member of their marine unit on Friday.
“It’s funny how time kind of slows down in those situations,” Gabbert said. “I just wanted to get them dry and warm as quickly as possible.”
Bucs coach Todd Bowles thought the rescue was “outstanding.”
“Any time you can find a guy to drop everything and go help somebody else that that he doesn’t even know without even thinking about it, and take their life into their own hands and helping somebody else save their lives, that says a lot about the guy,” he said. “And Blaine did that.”
Gabbert, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, has played for the Buccaneers since 2019 and currently serves as the backup to Tom Brady.
After a helicopter crashed into the bay yesterday, @BlaineGabbert and his brothers, who were on jet skis, were instrumental in the rescue. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/sg2pD1MM4Q
Kate, the Princess of Wales and Prince William went through a rocky patch a few years into their relationship as the royal experienced some doubts.
Kate, the Princess of Wales was once left “in tears” as Prince William changed his mind about spending New Year’s Eve with the Middletons. Royal author Katie Nicholl reported the royal informed his then-girlfriend that plans had changed with days to spare after having been urged by the late Queen and then-Prince Charles not to rush their relationship. Kate and William briefly broke up shortly after he confirmed he would spend the new year with his family at Sandringham.
“Both advised him not to hurry into anything.”
Prince William met Kate Middleton at the University of St Andrew’s in 2001 and the two shared a close friendship before starting a relationship in their second year at university.
The pair even shared lodgings with a couple of their classmates before their romance began.
By the mid-2000s Kate had become a well-known figure in royal circles, often appearing alongside Prince William at events and even attending his graduation from The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst only weeks before he took a step back in their relationship.
The royal couple parted ways for a few months in 2007, with Kate photographed out partying with younger sister Pippa and their friends.
But within months of their separation, Prince William rekindled their relationship and the pair have been inseparable since.
Kate admitted later on that she “wasn’t very happy” about the split but conceded it proved their relationship would last.
She said: “At the time I wasn’t very happy about it but actually it made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realized.
“I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you’re younger. I really valued that time, for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time.”
Prince William also noted the brief split “worked out got the better” for the couple.
And commentator Kinsey Schofield claimed Kate’s conduct after the split up won her over the admiration of the late Queen after she refused to discuss her relationship with William.
“It made Kate a no-brainer — she was the future Queen.”
Kate and Prince William married on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey after the royal popped the question during a visit to Botswana the year before.
They became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after the late Queen gifted her grandson the title upon their marriage and became the Prince and Princess of Wales in September after Her late Majesty’s death led to the accession of King Charles III to the throne.
Barbara Walters, the trailblazing television news broadcaster and longtime ABC News anchor and correspondent who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died. She was 93.
Walters joined ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of “20/20,” and in 1997, she launched “The View.”
In a career that spanned five decades, Walters won 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News.
She made her final appearance as a co-host of “The View” in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.
“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she said at the time. “I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.”
Barbara Jill Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, 1929, to Dena and Louis “Lou” Walters. Her father worked in show business as a booking agent and nightclub producer, and discovered comedians Fred Allen and Jack Haley, who would go on to star as the Tin Man in the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”
Growing up around celebrities taught a young Barbara a lesson that she relied upon throughout her career.
“I would see them onstage looking one way and offstage often looking very different. I would hear my parents talk about them and know that even though those performers were very special people, they were also human beings with real-life problems,” Walters said in a 1989 interview with the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences. “I can have respect and admiration for famous people, but I have never had a sense of fear or awe.”
In her 2008 memoir “Audition,” Walters revealed that she got her ambition to succeed from her older sister, Jacqueline, who was born developmentally disabled.
“Her condition also altered my life,” Walters wrote. “I think I knew from a very early age that at some point Jackie would become my responsibility. That awareness was one of the main reasons I was driven to work so hard. But my feelings went beyond financial responsibility.
Rowland Scherman/Getty ImagesBroadcast journalist Barbara Walters looks at film negatives with an unidentified man behind the scenes at NBC Studios in New York, circa 1966.
“Much of the need I had to prove myself, to achieve, to provide, to protect, can be traced to my feelings about Jackie. But there must be something more, the ‘Something’ that makes one need to excel,” she added. “Some may call it ambition. I can live with that. Some may call it insecurity, although that is such a boring, common label, like being called shy, that means little. But as I look back, it feels to me that my life has been one long audition — an attempt to make a difference and to be accepted.”
After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in the 1950s, Walters found work as a publicist and television writer, before landing a spot as a writer on NBC’s “Today” show in 1961. She would become the program’s first female co-host in 1974, and won her first Emmy award the following year for Outstanding Talk Show Host.
“No one was more surprised than I,” she said of her on-air career. “I wasn’t beautiful, like many of the women on the program before me, [and] I had trouble pronouncing my r’s.”
In her memoir, Walters wrote that she had dark hair, a sallow complexion and was often told she was skinny. She said her parents’ term of endearment for her was “Skinnymalinkydin.”
In 1976, Walters found a new home on ABC’s “Evening News,” making history as the first female co-anchor of an evening news program.
In her inaugural broadcast on Oct. 4, 1976, with co-anchor Harry Reasoner, Walters scored an exclusive interview with Earl Butz, who had just resigned as President Gerald Ford’s Secretary of Agriculture after it was revealed he told a racist joke. She also conducted a satellite interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on his plans to end his country’s fighting with Lebanon.
At ABC, her interviews were wide-ranging and her access to public figures, unparalleled; Walters crossed the Bay of Pigs with Fidel Castro and conducted the first joint interview with Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin. She also developed a reputation for asking tough questions.
“I asked Vladimir Putin if he ever ordered anyone to be killed,” she once recalled. “For the record, he said ‘no.'”
Upon the death of Castro in 2016, Walters released a statement saying the dictator had called her two interviews with him “fiery debates.”
ABC Photo ArchivesBarbara Walters interviewed Cuban president Fidel Castro as they crossed the Bay of Pigs on an ABC News Special which aired June 9, 1977, on the ABC Television Network.
“During our times together, he made clear to me that he was an absolute dictator and that he was a staunch opponent of democracy,” Walters said in her statement. “I told him that what we most profoundly disagreed on was the meaning of freedom.”
There were lighter interviews, too. For years, she hosted an annual Oscars special, in which she interviewed Academy Award nominees and was known for making a number of them reveal deeply personal information and even cry. In 1994, she launched the “Most Fascinating People” special, which aired every December and afforded her the opportunity to chat with the year’s top newsmakers.
In 1999, an estimated 74 million viewers tuned in to watch Walters interview Monica Lewinsky about the former White House intern’s affair with then-President Bill Clinton. Toward the end of the interview, Walters asked Lewinsky, “What will you tell your children when you have them?” Lewinsky replied, “Mommy made a big mistake” to which Walters quipped, “And that is the understatement of the year.”
ABC Photo ArchivesBarbara Walters interviews former President Ronald Reagan for ABC News’ “20/20” at his Santa Barbara Ranch in 1981.
Walters also interviewed every U.S. president and first lady from the Nixons to the Obamas. She interviewed President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump before they entered the White House.
With “The View,” she created a forum for women of different backgrounds and views to come together and discuss the latest hot topics in the news, a format that has since been widely imitated by other networks. In a May 2019 New York Times Magazine cover story, “The View” was deemed “the most important political TV show in America.”
Walters was married four times to three different men (she wed Merv Adelson, a television producer and real estate developer, twice) and adopted daughter Jacqueline Guber with second husband Lee Guber, a theater producer and owner. She named her daughter after her sister, writing in her memoir that she “wanted Jackie to feel that she, too, has a child, because I knew by this time she never would.”
“She keeps me sane, she keeps me grounded,” Walters said of her daughter. “Children do that … I think a lot of working women struggle with the job and being home and there’s never a right answer. Whatever you do is wrong, but whatever you do will turn out eventually to be OK.”
She was honored in 2001 with a wax portrait of her likeness at Madame Tussauds in New York City and in 2007 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She was also the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from her alma mater Sarah Lawrence College, as well as Ohio State University, Temple University, Marymount College, Wheaton College, Hofstra University and Ben-Gurion University in Jerusalem.
After 25 years in television, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1989 and was presented the award by Peter Jennings, then the anchor and senior editor of ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
“In all the years that Barbara has spent covering the world, those of us who have moved along in her wake have done better because she was there first setting standards, and she has taught us all something,” Jennings, who died in 2005, said at the time.
In 2000, Oprah Winfrey echoed Jennings’ speech when she presented Walters a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. “Had there not been Barbara Walters, surely all of the other women who have followed in her footsteps, including myself, could not stand where we stand and do what we do in this industry today,” Winfrey said.
In her acceptance speech, Walters said, “I have been blessed with a life I never expected, and helping me up the steps of the ladder over the years have been hundreds of people.”
Slaven Vlasic/Getty ImagesBob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company; Anne Sweeney, Co-chair, Disney Media Networks and President, Disney/ABC Television Group; ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer; Barbara Walters; ABC News anchor David Muir, “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts and ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos attend the dedication ceremony as ABC News headquarters in New York is proclaimed The Barbara Walters Building on May 12, 2014.
Part of ABC News’ Headquarters in New York was renamed “The Barbara Walters Building” in May 2014. During the ceremony, Walters accepted the honor, saying, “People ask me very often, ‘what is your legacy?’ and it’s not the interviews with presidents, or heads of state, nor celebrities. If I have a legacy, and I’ve said this before and I mean it so sincerely, I hope that I played a small role in paving the way for so many of you fabulous women.”
Five people have been killed and 37 injured when they were unable to escape a tunnel fire in South Korea.
A freight truck and a bus collided, setting alight under a soundproof awning on a major highway through Seoul earlier today.
The fire quickly spread along the structure, destroying more than 40 other vehicles.
A witness described the panic as people tried to escape because traffic had built up and the fire spread so quickly.
The National Fire Agency said in a statement that the three of the injured were in serious conditions while 34 others suffered relatively minor injuries.
Earlier TV footage showed thick black plumes of smoke billowing from the tunnel, but fire officials said later they’ve almost put out the blaze on the Second Gyeongin Expressway.
More than 40 vehicles were destroyed in the blaze (Picture: EPA)
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the collision and the fire, or what cargo the truck was carrying.
The public affairs office at the fire agency couldn’t immediately confirm where the five dead came from.
Insiders close to Arnold Schwarzenegger question if the film star will be terminated because he is “dragging his heels” when it comes to marrying longtime girlfriend Heather Milligan, RadarOnline.com has learned.
It’s claimed that Milligan may get tired of waiting to take their relationship to the next level considering Schwarzenegger and the physical therapist have been linked since at least 2013.
Insiders worry he’s comfortable with their romance as is following his $400 million divorce from ex-wife Maria Shriver, and it may impact their future as a couple.
Shriver and Schwarzenegger called it quits a decade ago after it was revealed that he had fathered a son with the family’s housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
“Heather has been with Arnold for nine years,” a source noted about his current relationship. “She’s been patient and waited long enough.”
“Arnold had the built-in excuse that he was still legally married, but he can’t rely on that any longer,” tattled the source. “Yet, he’s still hemming and hawing” and the “clock is ticking!”
A friend said if push comes to shove, he could end up a bachelor, adding that Schwarzenegger appears to have his own reasons for holding off from the altar.
“He doesn’t want to take another financial [loss] if things go south,” claimed the pal following his pricey breakup.
RadarOnline.com has reached out to a rep for Schwarzenegger for comment.
More recently, Milligan and the Maggie star were seen enjoying the 187th Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.
They are still together a year after Shriver and Schwarzenegger’s divorce was finalized in December 2021, marking the end of a long and drawn-out process.
She initially filed in July 2011 after 25 years of marriage.
Following their breakup, Shriver and the actor-turned-governor said their four children would remain “the light and the center of both of our lives.”
The former flames shared a joint statement on their split, adding, “This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us. After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together.”
Schwarzenegger later told Men’s Journal in 2017 that he thought about his affair every so often, but tried not to let the learning experience break his spirit.
“I can beat myself up as much as I want — it’s not gonna change the situation,” he said. “So the key thing is, how do you move forward?”
Meghan Markle, 41, attended the prestigious Northwestern University in Illinois. According to a study, the Duchess of Sussex ranks above all other Royal Family members when it comes to the quality of academic institution she attended.
Northwestern University, where Meghan studied a double major in Theatre and International Relations, places 30 on a list of over 1,350 institutions in the QS World University Rankings.
This is 61 places ahead of the University of St Andrew’s, which is the second-best institution attended by a royal in this survey.
The research, by international education provider Oxford Royale, analysed QS World University Rankings to discover which royal is the most intelligent.
Kate Middleton and Prince William are a royal power couple when it comes to intelligence, placing second and third on the list of most intelligent royals respectively.
The Prince and Princess of Wales met and fell in love when Kate was studying History of Art and William was studying Geography at the University of St Andrews.
The dazzling duo started off as friends but sparked a romance after Prince William saw Kate model at a university fashion show.
Although the royal couple attended the same institution, Kate pips William to the post when it comes to intelligence, getting AAB in her A-Levels, ahead of William’s grades of ABC.
Princess Eugenie takes the crown as the UK’s fourth smartest royal. The Princess studied History of Art and English Literature at Newcastle University, which ranks 134 out of all universities on the QS World University Rankings list.
In addition, she achieved AAB in her A-Levels. Despite Eugenie’s sister Princess Beatrice also achieving strong A-Level results (ABB), Eugenie comes out top when it comes to brains.
This is because Newcastle University ranks 327 places above her older sister Princess Beatrice’s choice of university, Goldsmith’s.
Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, the children of Princess Anne, also rank high on the list of most intelligent royals.
The royal siblings both attended Exeter University, which places 149 on the QS World University Rankings list.
A spokesperson for Oxford Royale commented on the findings for Express.co.uk, arguing that the Duchess of Sussex is “unashamedly brilliant”.
They said: “Meghan Markle is an unashamedly brilliant woman, and her refusal to remain silent on complex, controversial issues from racism and injustice to period poverty and the need for paid parental leave is a testament to her intelligence and academic pedigree.
“Despite the fact that as the wife of Prince Harry, Meghan has married into a royal tradition of neutrality on key political issues (to preserve the stability of The Crown), the Duchess of Sussex has never let this prevent her from expressing her beliefs openly and articulately.
“Not only has Meghan had a successful career as an actress, but she also completed a degree in of the most complex and rigorous subjects available – International Relations – at a top academic institution.
“This has given her excellent preparation for a life and career where she will communicate continually with the public.
“Meghan and Harry’s marriage is a multi-skilled partnership; while the Prince opted not to attend university and serve in the army instead, the resilience and lateral thinking skills he will have gained from his military career, coupled with the natural empathy he has inherited from his mother, Princess Diana, will bring great strength to the couple as they navigate a lifetime in the spotlight.
“While the public focus is always on Kate Middleton’s impeccable fashion sense and style, she also shines as the second most intelligent member of the UK Royal Family.
“With impressive A-Level results and a degree from one of the UK’s strongest academic institutions, she is well equipped for a role which requires careful curation and intelligence.”
A man who pulled a gun on an employee at a Gainesville business in an armed robbery attempt slipped and fell on ice while trying to get away, police say.
The incident happened on Christmas Day at around 1 a.m. on the 400 block of Atlanta Highway in Gainesville.
Police say 30-year-old Luis Sajbocho-Ordonez allegedly hid behind the business, pulled a gun on an employee as they exited, and demanded cash.
A physical altercation ensued between the employee and Sajbocho-Ordonez.
Another employee exited the rear of the building, spooking Sajbocho-Ordonez, and causing him to fire a shot and runoff. The shot did not hit anyone, according to police.
In an attempt to get away, Sajbocho-Ordonez fell on a patch of ice and hit his head.
Witnesses were able to get two guns away from him while he was laying on the ground, injured.
Police arrived moments later and took Sajbocho-Ordonez into custody.
He was treated on the scene and transported to Hall County Jail, charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault.
