One of Meghan Markle’s first official public engagements, since she and her husband Prince Harry stepped down as senior working royals, has been announced.

The Duchess of Sussex will be a special guest at the three day 2020 Girl Up Leadership Summit, which is being conducted virtually this year from July 13 – 15.

The former actress joins an impressive roster of speakers including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad and COO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg.

Meghan will also be joined by her longtime friend Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who has been hailed as a ‘changemaker’ and is on the bill alongside The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil and Euphoria’s Storm Reid.

The summit connects empowering and inspirational women to future female leaders around the world.

Girl Up is a United Nations derived organisation, founded in 2010, focused on developing, mentoring and coaching adolescent girls around the world to become much-needed future leaders, to achieve gender equality around the world.

Since relocating to Los Angeles and cutting off their funding from the royal family, Meghan and Harry have continued with charity work while working on their new foundation Archewell, behind the scenes.

However, most of engagements and visits have not been announced in the typical way they would have when the couple were members of the royal family and carried out duties and engagements on behalf of the Queen. Instead, it’s later been revealed on social media that Meghan and Harry paid a visit or delivered a speech to a particular organisation. Such was the case when Meghan gave a rousing virtual graduation speech on racism to her old high school or when the couple prepared food with former gang members and offenders at a rehabilitation charity Homeboy Industries in LA.

Source: Elle UK

Harry and Meghan take Hollywood: Archewell trademark application reportedly includes ‘television shows’ and ‘motion picture films’.

With the Duke and Duchess of Sussex having left royal life behind them and settled in Meghan’s former home of California, the stage seems set for the Duchess to make a return to the industry where she first became known. And new reports suggest that this might be just the couple’s intention, as they have allegedly applied to trademark the name of their planned foundation, Archewell, for ‘television shows’ and ‘motion picture films’.

According to Richard Eden for the Daily Mail, the Duke and Duchess have listed an extensive range of potential ventures in their application to the Intellectual Property Office in London, encompassing everything from ‘digital entertainment content’ to a platform ‘featuring information in the field of nutrition, general health and mental health’.

An unnamed ‘source close to the Sussexes’ told Eden: ‘Archewell is going to be huge. Harry and Meghan will use it to support lots of causes that they feel passionately about. It will be a global organisation with international ambitions.’

The name for the foundation stems from the Greek word arche, meaning sources of action, which also inspired the couple’s decision to name their son Archie. The pair had formerly established the basis of a non-profit organisation named Sussex Royal, but were prohibited from using the word ‘royal’ after departing from official royal life at the end of March.

The ambitious plans for the new charitable foundation have, however, been put on hold amid the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, with the couple having stipulated that they ‘look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.’

Before rising to international fame as a member of the British Royal Family, Meghan worked as an actress, becoming best known for the role on the American legal drama Suits. Since departing from official royal life, the Duchess has made some small forays back into the world of Hollywood, having narrated a Disney documentary about elephants.

Source: Tatler

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined a campaign calling for large companies to withdraw advertising from Facebook until the platform takes action to stop the spread of hate speech.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have given their support to the #StopHateForProfit campaign, backed by Coca-Cola and more than 100 companies that have withdrawn advertising from social media platforms that fail to rein in offensive material online.

Coca-Cola has boycotted Facebook for 30 days, despite Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, announcing policy changes on Friday, including a promise to label, but not remove, political posts that violate its rules on misleading and dangerous content.

The Baltimore-based civil rights group NAACP tweeted thanks to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for “their leadership” and “commitment to truth, justice, and equality”.

Stop Hate for Profit accuses Facebook of turning a blind eye to incitements to violence and voter suppression and says the changes will not “make a dent in the problem”.

Mr Zuckerberg had declined to act as recently as last week, until Unilever withdrew its adverts from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for six months. Honda, Ben and Jerry’s, the US telecommunications company Verizon and Lululemon, a sportswear brand, are also supporting the boycott.

About 98 per cent of Facebook’s $70 billion annual revenue comes from advertising. On Friday, its shares fell 8.3 per cent, shaving $7.2 billion off Mr Zuckerberg’s personal wealth.

Speaking about the duke and duchess’s involvement with the campaign, a source told Town and Country magazine: “As we’ve been developing Archewell, one of the areas the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been keen to address is online hate speech, we’ve been working with civil rights and racial justice groups on it.

“They have been working to encourage global CEOs to stand in solidarity with a coalition of civil and racial justice groups, which are calling for structural changes to our online world.”

Last year Facebook was fined a record $5 billion by a US regulator after Cambridge Analytica, a UK firm, harvested the personal information of tens of millions of users without permission.

The pressure to moderate hate speech has grown in recent weeks after Facebook refused to flag President Trump’s suggestion that looters would be shot during anti-racism protests, prompting a staff walkout. Mr Trump’s post remains live on the platform.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to make progress on these challenges,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

Critics said that the changes are inadequate, only five months before a US presidential election ripe for foreign and domestic interference.

Jessica Gonzalez, of Change the Terms, a coalition of civil rights groups, said: “We need more enforcement, not words that remain unfulfilled.”

Source: The Times

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are settling into life in Los Angeles, have signed on with the New York-based Harry Walker Agency for speaking engagements, according to a person familiar with their plans.

The couple, whose professional interests and every move have been scrutinized, will be engaging in moderated discussions and keynote speeches with trade associations, corporations and community forums, said the person, who declined to be identified.

They will focus on social issues such as racial justice (which the former Meghan Markle recently addressed with students from her L.A. alma mater), gender equity and environmental concerns. They will also speak on mental health; Prince Harry has shared his own struggles with grief and has championed emotional health initiatives and organizations in recent years.

The appointment of Harry Walker, tasked with fielding and sourcing speaking opportunities, heralds the couple’s return to public platforms as they seek to promote their philanthropic foundation Archewell. Fans and critics alike have been waiting to see how the couple will deploy their significant cultural capital and which causes they will support since stepping back from front-line royal duties in the U.K.

Since leaving the U.K, the couple’s appearances have largely been in private. Prince Harry spoke at a private JP Morgan event in Miami — where he reportedly discussed mental health — and both he and his wife have participated in video calls with charities they support. As the coronavirus health crisis moves into a new phase, with the reopening of many aspects of public life, the couple could now return to speaking on stages.

By choosing the Harry Walker Agency to represent them, they join an A list of Hollywood entertainers as well as some of the world’s most sought-after Democratic politicos: Michelle and Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton and rising party star Stacey Abrams.

It’s a high-profile signing for Harry Walker, which was acquired by last year by Endeavor, the parent company of WME.

The speaking agency also represents other close connections of the couple, including Oprah Winfrey and Jane Goodall.

Speaking can be extremely lucrative and the proceeds from Harry and Meghan’s bookings will be part of their move to become financially independent from the British royal family. President Obama reportedly earned $400,000 for one 2017 speech, while the Clintons averaged $250,000 per appearance in 2014. It is unclear what speaking fees will be for the Duke and Duchess, who will speak both together or individually.

Source: LA Times

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent a letter to thank StreetGames charity staff for delivering Hubb Kitchen meals to vulnerable people.

Sports charity Street Games, an organisation supporting disadvantaged communities in London, took to Twitter to share a picture of the note they received from the Duke & Duchess of Sussex, who are currently residing in LA.

Upon learning that they would not be permitted to use the Sussex Royal name for their independent branding ventures following their departure from the Royal Family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose to call their charitable foundation Archewell. They stated back in April that the idea was drawn from the Greek word ‘Arche’, meaning ‘source of action’, which also inspired the name of Harry and Meghan’s son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. But the couple have faced a fresh set back, with new reports emerging indicating that their trademark application has been rejected.

According to the Sun, the decision was made on the grounds that the Duke and Duchess did not sign the application, that it was ‘too vague’ and because they didn’t pay all the fees required. The couple reportedly submitted their application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office after submitting their application on 3 March. Paperwork obtained by the news outlet indicates that it was filed by Cobblestone Lane LLC, an organisation that’s registered in the US State of Delaware, but which reportedly has ties to the Beverly Hills offices of a leading Hollywood lawyer, employed by Meghan.

An examiner was reportedly assigned to review the application on 26 May. The Sun alleges that the couple have since received an ‘Irregularity Notice’ from the USPTO citing a number of problems. The Notice is said to set out changes which need to be implemented by the couple’s attorney, Marjorie Witter Norman, by 22 August – after which date the application will be ‘abandoned’.

Among the issues raised is the vague nature of the application, with the Notice reportedly stating: ‘The wording “providing a website featuring content relating to philanthropy, monetary giving, volunteer and career opportunities” in International Class 35 is also indefinite and over broad, and must be clarified to specify the nature of the content provided.’ It also states that Harry and Meghan still need to pay some additional fees in order to process their application.

A Non-Final Action was reportedly sent on 2 June, and the trademark can be held without being active until the necessary amendments are filed. Pointing out another issue, the examiner in the Non-Final Office Action paper added that ‘The application was unsigned, resulting in the application not being properly verified.’ Indeed the Sun reports that even carefully drafted trademark applications often face initial rejection by the USPTO, with one in five failing their first examination. The news outlet reached out to Harry and Meghan’s representatives and trademark attorney for comment.

The news comes following reports that the couple have delayed the launch of their new charitable foundation until next year, in light of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. A source told the Daily Telegraph that the public unveiling of Archewell is ‘not on the cards’ until 2021, stating: ‘What’s absolutely clear is that they want to get it right and there’s no point in rushing… They are settling into a new life, a new era. This is about getting it right and making sure they are able to make the difference they want to make.’

Source: Tatler