Borne on a gun carriage and accompanied by the boom of artillery cannons and the tolling of Big Ben’s bell, the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II was transported on Wednesday (August 14) from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, where the queen’s body will lie in state until her funeral on Monday.

The first members of the public were admitted to Westminster Hall at 5 p.m local time (12 p.m. Eastern) to pay their respects. Many had waited for hours in a line that was stretching for miles around London.

Earlier, at 2:22 p.m. (9:22 a.m. Eastern), the coffin, draped in the imperial standard and bearing the imperial state crown on a velvet pillow, rolled slowly out of the front gate of Buckingham Palace. That precise time was chosen because it allowed the procession to reach the doors of Westminster Hall 3 p.m., when it was met by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

King Charles III, in full dress uniform and carrying a field marshal’s baton, walked behind the coffin, joined by his sister, Princess Anne, and their two brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. His elder son and heir, Prince William, newly named as the Prince of Wales, walked behind him, next to his brother, Prince Harry.

The procession, one of the most solemn of the public rituals marking the death of the British monarch, was meant to have less fanfare than other ceremonies. Even the skies above the route were cleared of commercial aircraft, with Heathrow Airport disrupting the schedules of flights to eliminate the distant roar of planes.

The cortege passed by the most familiar symbols of royal London, from Buckingham Palace to the wide, tree-lined vista of the Mall, then past government institutions on Whitehall and Downing Street, before arriving at Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Parliamentary estate.

With the queen departing the palace for the last time, her 38-minute journey symbolized the transfer of responsibility for the sovereign’s body from the royal family, which has been mourning a beloved matriarch, to the British nation, which will now mourn a revered head of state.

There were familiar emblems of the queen’s military status: Her gun carriage was guarded by the Household Mounted Cavalry Regiment, followed by bands of Grenadiers and Scots guards. Members of the queen’s household, including her private secretary and keeper of the privy purse, walked in front of the coffin.

In walking behind the coffin, the members of the royal family took up the same positions they had during a procession on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile on Monday. Their choice of dress reflected their sometimes turbulent personal circumstances.

Prince Andrew, who served in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War, wore a morning suit rather than a uniform, reflecting his banishment from royal duties because of his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sexual predator.

Prince Harry, who withdrew from his royal duties and moved to the United States in 2020 with his American-born wife, Meghan, also wore a morning suit. Andrew will wear his uniform for a final salute to his mother later in the week. A spokesman for Harry said he was content to wear civilian dress.

The other female members of the family — Queen Camilla; Catherine, the Princess of Wales; and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex — rode to Westminster Hall in advance.

Once inside the centuries-old hall, the coffin was placed on a catafalque, and Archbishop Welby and other clerics conducted a brief service. The hall was then readied for round-the-clock public viewing, a ritual that was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people. The police estimate that the wait could last for hours and that the line could eventually stretch for up to 10 miles.

Westminster Hall, which sits in the shadow of Big Ben, is one of the most hallowed places in British public life. Erected by King William II in 1097, it is where King Richard I had his coronation banquet in 1189, Thomas More was tried for treason in 1535 and Winston Churchill’s body lay in state in 1965.

It is almost impossible to define  India's relationship with the US. India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the same at an event for Indians living in the United States.

He also said that these two countries now see each other as 'favorable, best, pleasant partners'.

Jaishankar said at the program of expatriate Indians in Washington, "I am often asked that where the relationship between these two countries is going?" It is difficult for me to define the limits of this relationship or express expectations about it because, this relationship exceeded all expectations in all aspects. That is why today I do not try to define the relationship between the two countries. We are gradually increasing the level of this relationship.

According to NDTV, Jaishankar held a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, administration officials and industrialists this week.

In this context, he said, 'India and the United States need to work together. It is important for Washington to have a relationship with those who speak well and think well about the United States.

According to him, we are looking for new fields. The more we do this together, the more successful we will be. Like ISRO's Chandrayaan, India-US relations have reached new heights.'

A few days ago, the G-20 summit was completed in New Delhi. The US also helped make the conference a success.

Jaishankar said this in a program organized at the Indian Embassy in Washington. He said that the help that the United States has given to make this conference a success should be said in front of everyone.

Jaishankar also rejected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations while sitting in the United States.

Trudeau alleged that Indian agents were behind the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. In this context, Jaishankar said, "This is not India's policy."

New Delhi has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens amid India-Canada diplomatic standoff. Jaishankar also opened up about it in Washington.

He said, 'There was an obligation. Misinformation was being spread about our diplomats, embassies. How will they go to the office to issue visas? It is a question of law and order. The question of the Vienna Convention. According to the Vienna agreement, we have to provide security to our diplomats and embassies. 

In conversation with Hudson Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead, Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar highlighted resilient supply chains, digital trust and transparency, and the prevention of production monopolies as key priorities for the United States–India relationship.

Important quotes from the event are below.

1. There is significant untapped potential in the India-US relationship. India and the United States have never really worked together. That is a very thoughtful observation because dealing with each other is not the same as working with each other. And in the past, both have always dealt with each other, sometimes not entirely happily. But working with each other is really uncharted territory. It is a territory which two countries have both entered in the last few years.

2. The US and India are both invested in the rules-based international order. Both India and the U.S.A. want to see a certain stability and a certain set of rules and a certain, distribution of power, which is advantageous to both. And mutual interests are not clashing in that respect. So at the biggest picture level, there's a very powerful case really for India and the US to work together.

3. For the future of technology manufacturing, the US needs partners, and India needs opportunities. Information-embedded economy has created a very powerful new convergence between India-U.S.A. because, at a global level, the United States will need partners. India will need opportunities and possibilities. So American priorities like iCET [the Initiative for Critical Emerging Technologies], the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act], and the Chips Act, these are all factors which will create a stronger sort of bonding.

India's Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the South Pole of the Moon for the first time in its history on August 23 evening. But, the Chinese scientist Wang Xiaoyuan made an explosive comment on such information. He claimed that India's Chandrayaan-3 did not land on the moon. His comments caused uproar. Criticism and controversy have started.

The country's scientist Wang Xiaoyuan gave this information in an interview with the Chinese language newspaper Science Times. The Indian magazine Business Today gave such news citing Science Times.

Wang Xiaoyuan said the place where the rover landed was at 69 degrees south latitude, not near the South Pole. The South Pole is defined between 88.5 degrees and 90 degrees.

In that interview, he also said that the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 is not at the south pole of the moon and it is not near the south pole of the moon. The information about Moon landing at the South Pole is incorrect, as the distance from the Chandrayaan-3 landing site to the Moon's South Pole region is 619 km.

Xiaoyuan is not the first Chinese scientist to question Chandrayaan-3's achievements.

Earlier, Beijing-based space expert Pang Zhihao told state media Global Times that China is far more advanced in many fields. Since the launch of Chang-2 in 2010, China has been able to send orbiters and landers directly into Earth-Moon transition orbits.

Pang Zhihao also said that the engine used by China is also very advanced. India's lander Pragyan has a lifespan of one lunar day and cannot withstand lunar nights, but China's nuclear-powered UTU-2 rover holds the record for longest operation on the lunar surface.

We all know that 24 hours day and night. After the tiredness of the whole day, we sleep at night, waiting for a new dawn. But think once, where the sun does not set, how will the new dawn come? Or where there is no night, when the people will sleep to remove the tiredness of the day? Do you think there is a place? Not unreal, there are places on earth where the sun never sets. After a long sleep where people do not see the dawn.

In today's discussion, we will know some places in the world, where the sun does not set even at night!

Norway: Norway is called the land of the shining sun. The country's geographical location makes it different from other countries in the world. From May until the end of July, the sun does not set in the Norwegian sky. As a result, Norwegian people do not see the night for two and a half months! Another specialty of the country is that the sun can be seen on the horizon even at night from the port of Hammerfest, Norway, as it is located in the Arctic region.

Nunavut, Canada: The Canadian territory of Nunavut is located 2 degrees above the Arctic Circle. The sun does not set here for about two months of the year. Not only that, the sun cannot be seen for 30 consecutive days in this place during winter. That is, the people here live under the shadow of the sun for two months on the one hand, in the same way they have to live in a long night for a month.

Iceland: Iceland is famous for its absence of snakes and mosquitoes. After Great Britain, Iceland is the largest island in Europe. The sun can be seen in this island even at night in June.

Barrow, Alaska: The sun is visible in the night sky from late May to late July (summer) in this area of Alaska. There is the reverse side of the coin! Not only does the sun never set, there are continuous nights here from early November to early December. That's why this place is also known as 'Polar Nights'.

Finland: Finland is called the land of thousand lakes and islands. The sun does not set for 73 consecutive days during summer in this European country. Similarly, the sun does not appear here for 32 consecutive days in winter. Because of this strange natural disparity, most people in that country believe that people sleep more in winter and less in summer.

Sweden: We all know that 365 days make up a year. But Sweden's year ends in one day! Because half of the year is day here, the other half is night. Even pulled again! So taking the day and night as the sun, it can be said that the year in Sweden is spent in one day! And people here spend half of the year in the dark and the other half in the light.