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Charles III Unveiled His First Official Portrait as King. Is It Too Red?

Artist Jonathan Yeo's nontraditional approach to royal portraiture has drawn mixed reactions

Jonathan Yeo's portrait of Charles III wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards Aaron Chown-WPA Pool / Getty Images The first official portrait of Charles III since his coronation was unveiled on Tuesday at Buckingham Palace. Created by British artist Jonathan Yeo, the painting portrays the king holding a sword and wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, which blends into a matching red backdrop. A butterfly flies above his right shoulder. The unveiling ceremony took place three months after the king revealed his cancer diagnosis; a few weeks ago, he announced his return to public duties. “Much like the butterfly I’ve painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject’s role in our public life has transformed,” writes Yeo in an Instagram post. “I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter’s face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait.” He has been working on the painting since June 2021, roughly two years before Charles’ coronation. The king sat for Yeo on four occasions, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace. The artist also used other drawings and photographs for reference. Previously, Yeo has painted prominent figures such as Rupert Murdoch, Tony Blair and Malala Yousafzai. The artist has also created portraits of Charles’ father, Prince Philip, and his wife, Queen Camilla. The intense red color that covers the majority of the canvas marks a departure from the customs of royal portraiture. On his website, Yeo writes that he wanted to inject a “dynamic, contemporary jolt into the genre with its uniformly powerful hue … providing a modern contrast to more traditional depictions.” Charles III unveils his first official portrait as king at Buckingham Palace. Aaron Chown-WPA Pool / Getty Images The king saw the painting when it was about halfway done. Yeo tells BBC News’ Katie Razzall that Charles was “mildly surprised by the strong color, but otherwise he seemed to be smiling approvingly.” He adds that when Camilla saw the portrait, she said, “Yes, you’ve got him.” Outside of Buckingham Palace, the 8.5- by 6.5-foot framed artwork has been met with mixed reviews. When BBC News asked members of the public for their reactions, some were taken aback by the “very red” color, calling the portrait “quite disturbing,” evoking imagery like a “massacre” or “flames.” Others approved of the modern approach, calling it “nice” and “distinguished.” One woman remarked, “I’m a big fan of red.” Meanwhile, some critics have been quite harsh. “Charles’ face is like a disembodied specter of death floating between violent brushstrokes,” writes the Cut’s Danielle Cohen. The Washington Post’s Sebastian Smee calls it “confused, obsequious, oversized and unaccountably frightening.” Charles’ portrait will hang in London’s financial district at Drapers’ Hall among those of other British monarchs, including George III and Queen Victoria. The butterfly above the king’s shoulder was Charles’ idea. It represents his transition from prince to king and his environmental activism. Yeo tells the New York Times’ Livia Albeck-Ripka that he noticed physical differences in Charles throughout their four sittings together. “Age and experience were suiting him,” says Yeo. “His demeanor definitely changed after he became king.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Activists sue Russia over ‘weak’ climate policy

Russian constitutional court is considering claim, which activists hope will raise awareness about emissionsA group of activists are fighting for the right to scrutinise Russia’s climate policies, and in particular its enormous methane emissions, in court.Russia’s constitutional court is considering a claim brought by 18 individuals and the NGO Ecodefense that insufficient action by the Russian state to cut national greenhouse gas emissions is violating their rights to life, health and a healthy environment. Continue reading...

A group of activists are fighting for the right to scrutinise Russia’s climate policies, and in particular its enormous methane emissions, in court.Russia’s constitutional court is considering a claim brought by 18 individuals and the NGO Ecodefense that insufficient action by the Russian state to cut national greenhouse gas emissions is violating their rights to life, health and a healthy environment.Another organisation that had planned to join the case, Moscow Helsinki, was closed down last year by a different Russian court. It was the country’s oldest human rights group.The claimants previously asked Russia’s supreme court to examine national climate policy, but it refused to take on the case. They then took a fresh claim to the constitutional court, which is responsible for upholding the country’s constitution. The court has decided some environmental cases in the past, including state liability for the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, but it has not yet dealt with climate breakdown.One of those bringing the case is Arshak Makichyan, who has previously been jailed in Russia after taking part in climate protests and who now lives in Germany. He said the lawsuit was about the contradiction between Russia’s climate policy and its constitution.“We are insisting in this case that the current climate policy of Russia is too weak and can’t protect us against the most catastrophic consequences of climate change,” he said.Russia is one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. The government has set a target to achieve net zero by 2060 but has done little to achieve this, leading Climate Action Tracker (CAT) to call its efforts “critically insufficient”.Russia’s energy strategy focuses almost exclusively on extracting, consuming and exporting fossil fuels, and its climate plans rely heavily on national forests taking up twice as much carbon as they do today. “No information substantiates such an enormous increase of carbon take-up,” says CAT. “It also doesn’t appear to address the impact of enormous wildfires in its Siberian forests in recent years.”Russia is close to the host of the next climate talks, Azerbaijan, which has defended investment in oil and gas.The claimants say Russia’s climate plans are scientifically unsubstantiated and ineffective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and they argue the plans should be significantly tightened to be in line with the Paris agreement.Part of the claim focuses on Russia’s role as the world’s biggest source of methane from fossil fuel extraction. Russian gas infrastructure is notoriously leaky and is responsible for a significant proportion of super-emitting leaks. Makichyan noted that Russia had no targets at all for reducing methane emissions.There have been few lawsuits to date that focus on short-lived but hugely potent climate pollutants such as methane, but academics expect more litigation on this topic in the future.Russia is particularly vulnerable to climate breakdown and its average temperatures having risen twice as fast as the global average. The lawsuit outlines how some of the claimants who live in large Russian cities have been affected by heatwaves and severe air pollution due to forest fires.As the climate crisis intensifies, Russia can expect more frequent and intense heatwaves, drought and extreme rainfall. This spring there were unusually severe floods in the Ural mountains and Siberia, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionAccording to the lawsuit, young and Indigenous people in particular are being discriminated against. It says Indigenous communities such as the Sámi could lose traditional food sources such as venison, fish and berries, putting their health and wellbeing at risk. Melting permafrost, floods and other extreme weather events will increase their exposure to disease and water contamination from toxic waste.Andrei Danilov, the director of the Sámi Heritage and Development Foundation, who is another claimant in the case, said hunting and fishing times were already changing.“With the disappearance of deer, fish and game, our lives change,” he said. “It’s not just a way of life. Our language, our culture directly depends on it.”Danilov previously won a case in the constitutional court upholding the rights of Indigenous people to hunt to maintain a traditional lifestyle. But he has since left Russia, where he said the authorities “did not like my insistence on protecting constitutional rights”, and is seeking political asylum in Norway.Makichyan said he did not have much hope that the case would succeed but it was “a helpful instrument to raise awareness about Russian climate policies”.The claimants would have to exhaust all domestic legal options to have a case considered at the European court of human rights, which recently ruled that states were breaching the rights of their citizens by failing to do enough to cut national emissions. Although Russia no longer recognises the European court’s jurisdiction, the court does have power to scrutinise its actions before September 2022.The Russian government did not respond to a request for comment.

Join us! Candidates Discuss Environmental Concerns

Please join us to discuss local environmental concerns and solutions with Florida candidates in the upcoming election. We’ll meet 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17 at Cypress and Grove Brewery, 1001 NW 4th St. In Gainesville. We look forward to a thoughtful discussion about your future and your children’s health!

Florida Climate Activist Nicholas Vasquez Rallies in Gainesville During 800-Mile State-Wide Walk

Embarking on an 800-mile walk across the state of Florida, Nicholas Vazquez is a 23-year-old climate activist using unconventional tactics to raise awareness for climate change.

As dismantling of largest dam begins on Klamath River, activists see 'new beginning'

Workers have begun dismantling the largest dam on the Klamath River. Indigenous activists are celebrating a milestone in restoring a free-flowing river.

Workers have begun dismantling the largest dam on the Klamath River, using machinery to scoop the first loads of rocks from an earthen barrier that has stood near the California-Oregon border for more than six decades.Several Indigenous leaders and activists watched as a single earthmover tore into the top of Iron Gate Dam, starting a pivotal phase in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.As they celebrated the long-awaited moment, they shouted, embraced and offered prayers. They said they hope to see the river’s salmon, which have suffered devastating declines, finally start to recover once Iron Gate and two other dams are fully removed later this year.“It’s a new beginning — for not only fish, but for people as well,” said Leaf Hillman, an elder and ceremonial leader of the Karuk Tribe who attended the groundbreaking on Wednesday. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science. Hillman and other Indigenous activists spent more than two decades campaigning — including repeatedly protesting at utility shareholders meetings — until they finally secured agreements for the hydroelectric dams to be removed.The smallest of the four dams was removed last year, and crews have been blasting into a second concrete dam with dynamite.Iron Gate Dam has towered above the river since it was completed in 1962. It stands 173 feet tall and 740 feet thick.Salmon are central to the cultures and fishing traditions of tribes along the Klamath River. But the dams have long blocked the fish from reaching areas where they once spawned, and have worsened water quality, contributing to toxic algae blooms and disease outbreaks that have killed fish.Hillman, 60, said he and his family have witnessed the continual degradation of the river and the salmon population throughout their lives. Now, he and other tribal members are looking ahead to this fall, when they expect salmon will once again swim in a free-flowing river.“All of us have been impacted by these dams,” he said. “And so now it represents for us a bright future.” Work has started on the dismantling the Iron Gate Dam, the largest dam on the Klamath river. (Swiftwater Films) Since the reservoirs were drained in January, the river has returned to its channel, flowing through denuded lands that have been underwater for generations. Crews have been scattering seeds of native plants to help restore natural habitats along the river and its tributaries.The project is being overseen by the nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corp., with a $500-million budget, including funds from California and from surcharges paid by customers of PacifiCorp, a power company. The utility agreed to remove the aging dams — which were used for power generation, not water storage — after determining it would be less expensive than trying to bring them up to current environmental standards.“After years of planning and preparation, and advocacy and activism on the part of the tribes, we’ve arrived at this major milestone to begin the removal of Iron Gate Dam,” said Mark Bransom, CEO of Klamath River Renewal Corp.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted permission for the first phase of the dam’s removal to begin, and a second authorization for the remainder of the work is expected soon.Crews hired by the contractor Kiewit Corp. will use machinery to excavate the dam’s estimated 1 million cubic yards of earthen material, including rock, sand and clay.Some of what they remove will be used to fill in the dam’s emergency spillway which is carved into the rock beside the river.Most of the material will be hauled away in dump trucks, which will make thousands of trips to return the rocks and earth to the original 37-acre pit where material was quarried for dam construction.Once the hole is filled, crews will plant vegetation to “create a more natural landscape feature,” Bransom said.The schedule for removing the three dams calls for finishing in August or September, which will allow for Chinook salmon to migrate upstream past the sites.“We’re on a fast track to get these dams out of the river,” Bransom said.When the work is done, he said, “there will be very little, if any, evidence that those dams were ever there.”The dams were built without tribal consent between 1912 and the 1960s.For Native activists who spent years demanding the removal of dams, the dismantling of Iron Gate Dam holds great symbolic significance .Some of those who attended the gathering on a bluff overlooking the dam said they felt excited and also relieved to see the work finally starting.Many tribal members along the Klamath began to demand change after a mass fish kill in 2002, when tens of thousands of salmon died, and filled the river with carcasses.Brook M. Thompson, a Yurok Tribe member, was 7 when she saw the river filled with dead salmon in 2002. In her high school years, she often traveled by bus to rallies and protests in Sacramento, Portland and other places.“Really my whole life has revolved around this dam removal since seeing that fish kill,” said Thompson, now a 28-year-old doctoral student in environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz.Seeing that excavator take that first scoop out of the dam, she said, “it feels like I can take a deep breath now.”As they stood watching, Hillman said the group prayed. They burned a root and sent their prayers ascending with the smoke.At one point in the celebration, someone popped open a bottle of champagne.The activists said years ago they were told they had little chance of prevailing in their fight to undam the Klamath.“We persevered,” Thompson said. “It’s nice to know all those years I spent talking about this haven’t gone to waste.”She said she sees the removal of dams offering hope to others who are pushing for change.“Having this success, and being able to share that, is important for me to help relieve some of the eco-anxiety I see with youth — not only from the tribe, but from all different areas, who are fighting for a better future when it comes to climate change and these environmental issues,” Thompson said.When the workers dumped the first load of excavated rocks, Thompson picked out a jagged reddish-orange stone about half the size of her head, and took it with her.“I’m excited to use it as a teaching tool,” she said.She said she planned to show the rock to students when she speaks to a high school class in San Francisco.After the dam-removal work began, Thompson said, a group of students from the Hoopa Valley Tribe brought wild grass seeds and planted them on the exposed land that had been underwater in the reservoir.She and others say a great deal of work remains to restore the watershed’s ecosystem and ensure healthy habitat for salmon and other fish.“We have a lot more work to do,” Hillman said. “And I think our communities are pretty well equipped with some young people that have cut their teeth on this fight.”Hillman attended the event with his 19-year-old son, Chaas, who was in his mother’s womb when tribal members traveled to Scotland to protest at a shareholders meeting Scottish Power, which owned PacifiCorp at the time.Hillman said that as he watched the machinery clawing at the dam, he thought about the struggles communities have faced while the deteriorating river ecosystem has affected tribal cultures, fishing traditions and the connections among people in the Klamath River Basin. That has included negative health effects from the loss of salmon in people’s diet, he said, as well as effects on mental health and suicides among young tribal members.Hillman said he also thought of all the people, living and dead, who helped make the undamming possible.“There’s just been so much that’s been put into this day coming, so many people contributing to it,” Hillman said.Taking down the dams will give the Klamath’s fish — including salmon, steelhead and lampreys — the opportunity to reconnect with their ancestral habitats. And in the same way, Hillman said, the removal of dams offers people throughout the region a chance to reconnect with the river and each other.“It’s up to us to reestablish those connections,” he said, “and renew those bonds.”