It’s safe to say that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are panicked. Maybe they’ve been panicking for three years. Maybe longer. William showed his jealous hand when he demanded a trip to New York so HE could speak at the United Nations, just like Prince Harry. Except the UN didn’t want him, so now Mike Bloomberg has to spend the money to rent out some basement room somewhere so Peggington can have an “Earthshot Summit.” It’s extremely desperate. What’s worse is that it’s pretty clear now that Kensington Palace is trying to drive a narrative that the Sussexes are no longer popular in America, so Americans will fully embrace Peggington and Jeggington. KP clearly commissioned Camilla Tominey’s Sussex hit piece last week, and over the weekend, the Mail had a piece called “Are William and Kate about to steal Harry and Meghan’s US crown? America’s love affair with its adopted royals seems to be on the wane – but a new favourite may arrive as the Duke of Cambridge prepares for two State-side visits to promote Earthshot mission.” Peg, you are one silly bitch. This piece is completely BONKERS.

Peggington’s high watermark: When the Duke of Cambridge goes to New York later this month, it will be a new high watermark in all his years of public service. At the United Nations General Assembly, Prince William will have the world’s attention as he meets the city’s former mayor and billionaire philanthropist Mike Bloomberg to promote Earthshot, his annual awards for innovative solutions tackling climate change. The pair will discuss the thorny subject of how to save the planet. William is expected to be received warmly by VIPs both at the UN and by New Yorkers in general as he meets community groups.

Just LOLZ: For the [NYC] visit – his first to the city since 2014 – will come at a moment when, in the eyes of America at large, the popularity of his younger brother and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, appears to be on the wane. Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are winning hearts and minds in the US. According to a recent poll, Kate is now more than twice as popular with the American public as Meghan.

William will be more “upbeat” than Harry: William, however, is determined to remain upbeat about the environmental challenge that lies ahead. Perhaps rightly, he now sees that America is the perfect place to launch an upbeat, optimistic battle to save the planet. And as a future king, he has the sort of access to the influential elite that a lesser royal, certainly one in self-imposed exile, can only dream of.

30 staffers at Earthshot? William has hired a team of around 30 staff for Earthshot. Leading them is Hannah Jones, a British woman who has spent much of the past two decades working in corporate America. Before she accepted the job as the CEO of Earthshot this year, she worked for Nike, spending 16 years as its chief sustainability officer. It’s clear to see why William has been so enamoured with her approach, which combines ‘have-a-nice-day’ American cheerfulness and down-to-earth British common sense.

What is this mess: The Duke – or ‘Dook’, as he is known State-side – will be there to present awards and praise the huge amount of work that goes into trying to save the planet. Rather than stir up division by blaming governments and corporations, William hopes to galvanise a great wave of grassroots optimism to create innovation and change – and urge institutions to sign up.

Slow & steady: After dismissing several suggestions that it should be known as The Prince William Prize – the duke’s response was ‘no, no, no’ – the Earthshot Prize was born. His thoughtfulness looks set to stand him in good stead. And, perhaps, that is where the brothers are different. Harry’s ambition appears to be to enact immediate change – vastly different to William’s slowly-but-surely approach, which is more likely to be bring lasting results. Even in the US, where Harry is raising his family, William’s attitude appears to have won him more fans than his virtue-signalling sibling.

[From The Daily Mail]

The tone of all of this is just so strange. I’m reminded of William and Kate’s Caribbean Flop Tour, when I had the sudden realization that literally nothing that they were doing was for the audiences in Jamaica, Belize or The Bahamas. William and Kate just get sent out to pose for photos in “foreign lands” and all of it is for British consumption. That’s what William’s New York trip will be too – it’s not actually about succeeding in New York or winning over Americans. William is going to New York to pose for photos for the British media, so that they can embiggen him in the domestic press. That’s it. This whole (expensive) trip isn’t just embiggening for an American audience, it’s to give the British press fodder to write about how William is so much bigger and more impressive than Harry, and Americans loved hearing from a keen environmentalist like Peggington, trust us! It’s so bizarre.

Meanwhile, did everyone just forget that Earthshot is now an independent charity? It was removed from the sketchy financial scheme of Kensington Palace shortly after William blew £7.1 million on Earthshot keenery whilst only handing out five £1 million grants to the Earthshot winners. As in, he truly spent £7.1 million on PR rehabilitation, staging and a bloated 30-person staff just to hand out £5 million in prize money.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Instar, Avalon Red.