More than 20 million people in the United Kingdom tuned in to watch King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday, but the ceremony attracted far fewer British viewers than his mother’s funeral last year.

Average viewing figures for the two-hour service at Westminster Abbey — the main part of the Saturday ceremony during which the King was crowned — reached 18.8 million, according to data provided by the UK Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (Barb).

The rainy day kicked off with King Charles III and Queen Camilla traveling from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. Watched by cheering and waving crowds, the couple rode in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach drawn by six horses. The coach was built in 2012 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

According to Barb, which analyzed audience figures across 11 television channels and services, the number of viewers peaked at 20.4 million just after midday when the King received his crown.

The BBC took the biggest share by far, with viewership across its BBC One and Two channels peaking at around 15 million, according to numbers released by the UK public broadcaster.

But the overall peak viewing figure was 9 million fewer than the number recorded for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, according to UK media reports, while the BBC audience was down about 5 million from the 20 million that tuned into BBC One for that service last September.

In 1953, more than 20 million people watched the late Queen being crowned, according to estimates based on surveys by the BBC at the time. Cameras were installed in Westminster Abbey for the first time to cover that coronation, which the BBC has described as the first mass television event in the UK.

Charles III’s coronation also underperformed compared to the wedding of his eldest son in 2011. The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton attracted a peak viewership of 20 million on the BBC, at the end of the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, according to the broadcaster.

Scores of foreign dignitaries, British officials, celebrities, and faith leaders gathered in the abbey for Saturday’s coronation. Still, the 2,300-strong congregation was much smaller than in 1953 when temporary structures had to be erected to accommodate the more than 8,000 people who attended.

Following the service, 4,000 armed forces personnel, accompanied by 19 bands, took part in the largest UK military procession for 70 years, cheered on by thousands of spectators.

Some anti-monarchy demonstrators turned out to protest Saturday’s coronation. London’s Metropolitan police said it arrested a total of 64 people on Saturday for a variety of offenses, including “conspiracy to cause public nuisance” and “breach of the peace.” Four of the people arrested have been charged with an offense.

Republic, Britain’s largest anti-monarchy group, told CNN Saturday that police arrested organizers of the protest without providing any reason. The group said in a tweet Monday that the “protest was curtailed to protect the image of the king” and called the arrests “an absolute disgrace.”

Source: edition.cnn.com

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted Thursday of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.

A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio and three lieutenants guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.

Jurors cleared a fifth defendant — Dominic Pezzola — of the sedition charge, though he was convicted of other serious felonies. The judge excused the jury without delivering a verdict on some counts — including another conspiracy charge for Pezzola — after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision.

“The Justice Department will never stop working to defend the democracy to which all Americans are entitled,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters after the verdict.

The verdict comes after a trial that took more than twice as long as originally expected, slowed by bickering, mistrial motions and revelations of government informants in the group. Securing the conviction of Tarrio, a high-profile leader who wasn’t at the riot itself, could embolden the Justice Department as a special counsel investigates Trump, including key aspects of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Special Counsel Jack Smith in recent weeks has sought the testimony of many people close to Trump. They include former Vice President Mike Pence, who testified before a grand jury last week, likely giving prosecutors a key first-person account about certain conversations and events in the weeks preceding the riot.

Tarrio was a top target of what has become the largest Justice Department investigation in American history. He led the neo-fascist group — known for street fights with left-wing activists — when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate with Biden.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, because he had been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital city. But prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol that day.

In addition to Tarrio, a Miami resident, three other Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy: Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl.

Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were also convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory and obstructing law enforcement as well as two other conspiracy charges. The four were cleared of an assault charge stemming from Pezzola, who stole an officer’s riot shield.

Rehl’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, said her client “continues to maintain his innocence.” Lawyers for Biggs and Pezzola declined to comment. An attorney for Tarrio declined to comment.

Prosecutors told jurors the group viewed itself as “Trump’s army” and was prepared for “all-out war” to stop Biden from becoming president.

The Proud Boys were “lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf,” prosecutor Conor Mulroe said in his closing argument.

The backbone of the government’s case was hundreds of messages exchanged by Proud Boys in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that show the far-right extremist group peddling Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and trading fears over what would happen when Biden took office.

As Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio cheered them on from afar, writing on social media: “Do what must be done.” In a Proud Boys encrypted group chat later that day someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio responded: “Do it again.”

“Make no mistake,” Tarrio wrote in another message. “We did this.”

Defense lawyers denied there was any plot to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. A lawyer for Tarrio sought to push the blame onto Trump, arguing the former president incited the pro-Trump mob’s attack when he urged the crowd near the White House to “fight like hell.”

“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your beautiful and amazing city,” attorney Nayib Hassan said in his final appeal to jurors. “It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”

The Justice Department hadn’t tried a seditious conspiracy case in a decade before a jury convicted another extremist group leader, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, of the Civil War-era charge last year.

Over the course of two Oath Keepers trials, Rhodes and five other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a separate plot to forcibly halt the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden. Three defendants were acquitted of the sedition charge, but convicted of obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

The Justice Department has yet to disclose how much prison time it will seek when the Oath Keepers are sentenced later this month.

Russia attacked several Ukrainian cities with explosive drones overnight, though Ukraine said Thursday that it had managed to shoot most of them down. Russia called the attack payback for what it claims was an alleged attempt by Ukraine to attack the Kremlin in Moscow using drones on Wednesday.

The Kremlin claimed the attack was an attempt by Ukraine to assassinate President Vladimir Putin and, on Thursday morning, Russia’s government accused the U.S. of planning it.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied any Ukrainian role in an attack on the Kremlin, insisting that his country’s forces were acting only to defend Ukraine’s sovereign territory — though there has been evidence over the last week that they’re also stepping up attacks, using drones, on Russian infrastructure, both in occupied territory and across the border inside Russia.

Russia quickly vowed to retaliate for the alleged double drone strike, calling it a “planned terrorist act.” The Kremlin said both drones were shot down before they struck Putin’s official residence, but it has offered no evidence to back up its claims.

U.S. officials have been working to confirm the origins of the alleged drone attack, but a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that he would “take anything coming from the Kremlin and the Russian Federation with a shaker of salt.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed the pleas of ignorance from both Ukraine and the U.S. as “ridiculous.”

“We know very well that decisions on such actions and such terrorist attacks are made not in Kyiv, but in Washington,” he said, claiming that Ukraine was “doing what it is told to do” by the U.S. and alleging that Ukraine’s military objectives “are not determined by Kyiv, but they are determined in Washington, and then these goals are brought to Kyiv so that Kyiv fulfils them.”

“Washington must clearly understand that we know it,” Peskov said.