Meet Felipe and Letizia, the new king and queen of Spain

By Nardine Saad
Jun 19, 2014

King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia of Spain during his inauguration at the Parliament (Congreso de los Diputados) on June 19, 2014 in Madrid, Spain. (Juan Naharro Gimenez / Getty Images)

Move over, Will and Kate: There are new monarchs in town, and they just took over in Spain.

King Felipe VI was crowned the sovereign of Spain in Madrid on Thursday and was joined by his wife, now Queen Letizia, and their daughters, Leonor and Sofia, princesses of Asturias.

Felipe, 46, ascended the throne after his father, King Juan Carlos, 72, abdicated June 2 after a 39-year reign.

Here are fast facts about the family:

Felipe's new role as king is largely ceremonial. He was given the title Thursday without a formal coronation but during a special joint session of Spain's parliament, according to World Now. His mother, the former Queen Sofia, attended, but his father did not. No foreign royals made the scene.

King Juan Carlos oversaw Spain's transition to democracy in the 1970s, but his more recent years on the throne were tainted by various scandals. Many Spaniards still call for the abolition of the monarchy.

Queen Letizia, 41, formerly Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a commoner, started dating Felipe in 2002.

She was a journalist and TV presenter who earned the Madrid Press Assn.'s Larra Award for most accomplished journalist younger than 30.
Letizia was previously married for about a year, but she and her first husband divorced in 1999. She quit work in 2003, days before she and Felipe announced their engagement and just as she had been promoted to an anchor position.
The new queen wed Felipe on May 22, 2004, wearing a high-collared ivory gown featuring a 15-foot-long train and the diamond tiara that Queen Sofia donned on her wedding day 42 years prior, the Daily Mail reported.
Since then she's become quite the fashion icon, All the Rage reported, and has been frequently compared to Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Before the coronation, she worked on social issues as Letizia, Princess of Asturias.

The new king and queen welcomed their first daughter, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, on Oct. 31, 2005. Her godparents are her grandparents, the former King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. She is now the first in line for the Spanish throne.

Princess Sofia, the couple's second daughter, was born in Madrid on April 29, 2007. Her maternal grandmother, Paloma Rocasolano, and Prince Konstantin of Bulgaria were godparents. She is known as Infanta Sofia of Spain.

For the coronation, which was a no-frills occasion to keep with the austerity measures of the times, Felipe wore a military uniform and was crowned with an 18th-century Spanish crown and 17th-century scepter.

Letizia wore a crystal-embellished coat by her designer of choice, Felipe Varela.

Donald J. Trump

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21 2018.

USGS Estimates 20 Billion Barrels of Oil in Texas’ Wolfcamp Shale Formation
The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey

Release Date: November 15, 2016

This is the largest estimate of continuous oil that USGS has ever assessed in the United States.

The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.

The estimate of continuous oil in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp shale assessment is nearly three times larger than that of the 2013 USGS Bakken-Three Forks resource assessment, making this the largest estimated continuous oil accumulation that USGS has assessed in the United States to date.

“The fact that this is the largest assessment of continuous oil we have ever done just goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the USGS Energy Resources Program. “Changes in technology and industry practices can have significant effects on what resources are technically recoverable, and that’s why we continue to perform resource assessments throughout the United States and the world.”

Although the USGS has assessed oil and gas resources in the Permian Basin province, this is the first assessment of continuous resources in the Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of the Permian.

Since the 1980s, the Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin has been part of the “Wolfberry” play that encompasses Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Lower Permian reservoirs. Oil has been produced using traditional vertical well technology.

However, more recently, oil and gas companies have been using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and more than 3,000 horizontal wells have been drilled and completed in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp section.

The Wolfcamp shale is also present in the Delaware Basin portion of the Permian Basin province, but was not included in this assessment. The Permian Basin province includes a series of basins and other geologic formations in West Texas and southern New Mexico. It is one of the most productive areas for oil and gas in the entire United States.

Continuous oil and gas is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences, such as those in conventional accumulations. Because of that, continuous resources commonly require special technical drilling and recovery methods, such as hydraulic fracturing.

Undiscovered resources are those that are estimated to exist based on geologic knowledge and theory, while technically recoverable resources are those that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. Whether or not it is profitable to produce these resources has not been evaluated.

USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of onshore lands and offshore state waters. The USGS Wolfcamp shale assessment was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol.

(The new assessment of the Wolfcamp shale may be found online. To find out more about USGS energy assessments and other energy research, please visit the USGS Energy Resources Program website, sign up for our Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter.)

Fidel Castro Biography - Documentary.

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This is a beautifully made documentary packed with rare archive footage and photographs. It shows Castro's childhood, his recklessness as a youth, his blossoming talents at the University of Havana and then his swift and complex ride to lawyer, jailbird, guerilla, politician and revolutionary. Adored and deplored, Castro's life makes compelling viewing.

Prince William, who rarely speaks about his mother Princess Diana's death, comforted a young girl who was mourning the loss of her father at a charity event in Stratford, London today.

“Do you know what happened to me?" William told 9-year old Aoife, who lost her father to pancreatic cancer six years ago. "You know I lost my mummy when I was very young too. I was [15] and my brother was 12. So we lost our mummy when we were young as well.

"Do you speak about your daddy?" William asked the girl. "It’s very important to talk about it. Very, very important.”

William is royal patron of the Child Bereavement U.K. Centre, a charity that helps families deal with the loss of a loved one.

Aoife’s mother, Marie, spoke to journalists after the event and said the conversation almost brought her to tears.

“I couldn’t believe it when he started to talk about his mother. It was very emotional and I was willing myself not to start to cry. I almost did,” she said.

William and Kate met with children at the facility in Stratford today and encouraged them to create memory jars to help them deal with their grief.

Prince Philip to retire from public duties at age of 96

The ‘world’s most experienced plaque unveiler’, the Duke of Edinburgh, will stop his public engagements this summer

Caroline Davies

Thursday 4 May 2017 17.55 BST
First published on Thursday 4 May 2017 10.10 BST

The Duke of Edinburgh will retire from public engagements in the summer at the age of 96, a decision that Buckingham Palace said had the full support of the Queen.

Shortly after the news was announced, Prince Philip was on duty, and on customary form , joining the Queen at St James’s Palace for a service and lunch for the Order of Merit.

When the mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah told him: “I’m sorry to hear you’re standing down,” Philip shot back: “Well I can’t stand up much longer.”

Tributes to the longest-serving royal consort in British history, who will turn 96 on 10 June, followed the announcement, first made to royal staff in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

The prime minister, Theresa May, said Philip had been a “steadfast support” to the Queen, while the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, an avowed republican, praised his “clear sense of public duty”.

The Duke of Edinburgh awards, which he set up in 1956 and are now the world’s leading youth achievement awards across 141 countries, were highlighted as one of his most striking achievements.

The Duke of Edinburgh was at Lord’s cricket ground on Wednesday.
Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

An aide stressed it was not a medical decision. “The duke decided this is the right time. He’s nearly 96 and most people will have retired 30 years earlier.”

In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “In taking this decision, the duke has the full support of the Queen. Prince Philip will attend previously scheduled engagements between now and August, both individually and accompanying the Queen.

“Thereafter, the duke will not be accepting new invitations for visits and engagements, although he may still choose to attend certain public events from time to time.

“Her Majesty will continue to carry out a full programme of official engagement with the support of members of the royal family.”

The announcement was made as the autumn diaries of the royals are being drawn up to give a clear signal of Prince Philip’s intention to the hundreds of organisations he is associated with.

Philip, who famously describes himself as “the world’s most experienced plaque unveiler” has undertaken 22,191 solo engagements and given 5,493 speeches in almost seven decades as the Queen’s “strength and stay”. He has never taken the official title of prince consort, despite it being offered. He has one of the royal family’s busiest diaries; , last year, he carried out official meetings and visits on 110 days.

he Duke of Edinburgh, second left, with the rest of his family on the royal barge during the Queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images

The Queen, whom the Philip has affectionately nicknamed “cabbage”, will attend more solo engagements or be accompanied by younger members of the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced in January they were moving from Norfolk to London, with William giving up his job as an air ambulance helicopter pilot in the summer with the intention of taking up more royal duties.

Prince Philip will spend more time at Windsor, enjoying leisure time. He is still an active carriage driver, though he no longer competes, and was seen driving his cart and horses through Windsor as recently as March. He also loves oil painting and the outdoors. His barbecues are legendary, as the former prime minister David Cameron attested on Twitter.

He will continue his association with more than 780 organisations of which he is a patron, president or member of, though he will no longer play an active role by attending engagements. His particular fields of interest include scientific and technological research, industry, the environment and sport. He has authored 14 books.

Tributes poured in from the charities he supports. The conservation charity WWF said he was “a true champion of the environment”, while Muscular Dystrophy UK wished him “a well deserved and happy retirement”.

Book Aid International said the duke’s support had been “a privilege and an honour”. The dean of the chapel royal in Scotland, the Very Rev Prof Iain Torrance, thanked “our witty and eagled-eyed Duke of Edinburgh” for his “unstinting” promotion of organisations across the country.

The Eccentric Club in London said it looked forward to continuing its relationship and wished him “a most eccentric and delightful ‘retirement’”.

In recent years, he has been admitted to hospital on a number of occasions for abdominal surgery, bladder infections and a blocked coronary artery.

Acknowledgement that he was thinking of retirement came on his 90th birthday, when he stepped down as president or patron of more than a dozen organisations and told the BBC: “I reckon I’ve done my bit,” adding: “It’s better to get out before you reach your sell-by date.”

Seen as a moderniser, who chaired the royals’ Way Ahead Group, Philip was instrumental in abolishing the practice of debutantes being presented at court and in instituting informal palace lunches drawing people from different walks of life together.

On his marriage, he effectively gave up a promising naval career, which could have seen him become first sea lord. It was curtailed in 1951 with the failing health of his father-in-law George VI. When the Queen bestowed on him the title Lord High Admiral, titular head of the navy, on his 90th birthday, it was seen as an affectionate tribute.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was among those who praised the duke not just for his seven decades of royal duties but also “his time fighting for Britain during the second world war in the Royal Navy”. Philip was mentioned in dispatches for courage during the Battle of Cape Matapan.

Over his 70 years at the Queen’s side – they celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary in November – he has seen the popularity of the royal family fluctuate and his sense of humour sometimes translated into “gaffe-prone prince” headlines. It seems not to have bothered him.

He once told biographer Gyles Brandreth that the adulation of the royal couple in the early years of the Queen’s reign was so unbelievable “it could have been corroding”. “It would have been very easy to play to the gallery, but I took the conscious decision not to do that. Safer not to be too popular. You can’t fall too far,” he said.

While many paid tribute to Philip, the shadow business minister Chi Onwurah tweeted: “Congratulations to Prince Philip on retiring in financial security at a time of his choosing from a job he enjoys #forthemanynotthefew #waspi,” referring to the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.

Prince Philip

Wince Philip: Prince's most famous comments and clangers

Duke of Edinburgh’s reputation for plain speaking has often led to controversy, but he has also been called a national treasure

    Prince Philip to retire from public engagements, says palace

The Duke of Edinburgh has shocked and sometimes delighted the public with his outspoken comments and clangers.

His reputation for plain speaking has often led to controversy, but he was once called a “national treasure” by the press for his inability to curb his off-the-cuff remarks.
Prince Philip to retire from public duties at age of 96
Read more

He claimed he was misunderstood. In fact, the duke has been “misunderstood” almost everywhere he has been.

Here are some of Philip’s famous phrases:

    “What do you gargle with, pebbles?” (speaking to the singer Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance)
    “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.” (on a visit to Canada in 1969)
       “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.” (on a visit to Canada in 1969)
    “Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.” (during the 1981 recession)
    “If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)

    “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.” (on seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York’s house at Sunninghill Park in 1988)
    “Yak, yak, yak; come on, get a move on.” (shouted from the deck of Britannia in Belize in 1994 to the Queen, who was chatting to her hosts on the quayside)

    “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?” (to a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, during a 1995 walkabout)

    “Bloody silly fool!” (in 1997, referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him)

    “It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.” (pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999)
    “Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.” (to young deaf people in Cardiff, in 1999, referring to a school’s steel band)
    “They must be out of their minds.” (in the Solomon Islands, in 1982, when he was told that the annual population growth was 5%)

(Prince Philip supposedly asked the Queen at her coronation: ‘Where did you get that hat?’

    “If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” (to British students in China, during the 1986 state visit)

    “You can’t have been here that long – you haven’t got a pot belly.” (to a Briton in Budapest, Hungary, in 1993)

    “I wish he’d turn the microphone off.” (muttered at the Royal Variety Performance as he watched Sir Elton John perform in 2001)
    “Do you still throw spears at each other?” (in Australia in 2002, talking to a successful Indigenous Australian entrepreneur)
    “You look like a suicide bomber.” (to a young female officer wearing a bullet-proof vest on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, in 2002)

    “There’s a lot of your family in tonight.” (after looking at the name badge of the businessman Atul Patel at a palace reception for British Indians in 2009)

    “Do you have a pair of knickers made out of this?” (pointing to some tartan, to the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie at a papal reception in Edinburgh in 2010)

    “I hope he breaks his bloody neck.” (when a photographer covering a royal visit to India fell out of a tree)
    “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she’s not interested.” (on the Princess Royal)
    “When a man opens a car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.” (on marriage)

    “Where did you get that hat?” (supposedly to the Queen at her coronation)

A Few Rare Glimpses of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews's Romance

Pippa Middleton is marrying her longtime boyfriend, James Matthews, this May, and we've been finding ourselves wanting to know more and more about their romance. Even though their love story has been almost 10 years in the making, the pair has managed to keep their relationship pretty under the radar. Unlike her big sister, Kate — who has shared numerous sweet moments with Prince William — Pippa has only been spotted out and about with her husband-to-be on a handful of occasions. From their family getaways to their fun-filled ski adventures, see some of their rare appearances together over the past few years.