Fox News 2024-10-14 00:08:28


Timeline exposes the critical election issue fueling surging violence in the US

The historic crisis at the southern border saw millions of illegal immigrants arrive there, with a great many eventually released into the United States as officials struggled to deal with the numbers they were facing.

Illegal immigration has remained a top issue for voters ever since, and that has been highlighted by a number of shocking, high-profile crimes committed by those in the country without authorization.

These are some of the most shocking crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants at the height of the border crisis – some of whom entered during the current crisis and some who entered years before, but allegedly committed crimes recently.

IMMIGRANT MURDER CONVICTIONS ‘TENS OF THOUSANDS’ HIGHER THAN ICE’S BOMBSHELL FIGURES: DATA EXPERT

2022

In March, Haitian illegal immigrant Jean Robert Macean was arrested for the stabbing death of a married couple in Florida. They were riding their bikes for a Bike Week event when they were killed. He was later deemed incompetent to stand trial.

“This is probably one of the most vicious and gruesome incidents that I’ve witnessed in my 20 years,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at the time. “We can’t rule out that this may be totally random, but if it is totally random, the person responsible has to be deranged.”

In July, Kayla Hamilton, who was autistic, was raped and killed in her mobile home. Police eventually arrested an El Salvadoran 17-year-old who authorities said is linked to the MS-13 street gang and who was released into the U.S. into the custody of his aunt after being encountered at the border. An interim staff Judiciary Committee report released in 2023 faulted the Biden administration for a failure to vet the suspect, calling it a “tragic example of the failure to enforce U.S. immigration law.”

“For me, this is not a political issue. This is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States,” Tammy Nobles, Kayla’s mother told lawmakers. “This could have been anyone’s daughter. Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong, and she didn’t deserve to be murdered. I don’t want any other parents to live the nightmare I am living.” 

The same month, Gerson Fuentes – a Guatemalan illegal immigrant – was arrested for the rape of a child. The victim, who was 9 when the attack happened, confirmed that he attacked her. The case sparked national attention after it was highlighted by an Indianapolis doctor that the victim traveled to Indiana to have the abortion due to Ohio’s limitations on abortion.

In August, two Mexican illegal immigrants were charged with the murder of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy. Alder Alfonso Marin Sotelo and Arturo Marin Sotelo are charged with the murder of Wake County K9 Deputy Ned Byrd, who was shot and killed on Aug. 11 when patrolling a neighborhood in response to multiple 911 calls. ICE told Fox News Digital that the brothers had both entered the U.S. illegally “on an unknown date, at an unknown place” that was not a port of entry – meaning they likely evaded Border Patrol agents.

Arturo Marin Sotelo had been encountered by Border Patrol agents near Naco, Arizona, in June 2010 and had been deported to Mexico via voluntary return through Tucson, Arizona. However, he later re-entered the country.

In October, Canadian illegal immigrant David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., with a hammer. DePape had entered the U.S. in 2008 and overstayed his visa.

The same month, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant was arrested for the stabbing of eight people on a sidewalk in Las Vegas, killing two of them. Yoni Barrios allegedly began his rampage after a group of showgirls refused to take a picture with him. He reportedly used what authorities described as a “large knife with a long blade” and began attacking when they rebuffed him.

2023

In April, Salvadoran national Carlos Dominguez was charged with stabbing two men to death in California, two days apart. In May, he stabbed a homeless woman multiple times, but she survived. He had entered the U.S. in 2009 as an unaccompanied minor.

The same month in Texas, Mexican and multiple deportee Francsico Oropesa Perez-Torrez accused of entering his neighbor’s home before midnight and shooting five people dead, including a third-grade boy. Others in the household had asked Oropesa to stop firing a rifle in his yard that late because a 1-month-old baby was trying to sleep. A source with the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Oropesa had been deported five times between 2009-2016. 

In May, Jose Roberto Hernandez-Espinal – a Salvadoran illegal immigrant – was arrested for allegedly raping a woman and a 15-year-old girl. He had reportedly entered the U.S. in 2013. Court documents allege that Hernandez-Espinal pointed a machete at a woman’s back and led her to a secluded part of the woods before raping her.

In June, police in Virginia arrested a Honduran national for breaking into an apartment and attempting to abduct a 4-year-old girl, Fox 5 reported. He had reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2018, and ICE had filed multiple detainers against him in 2021 and 2022, but they have not been honored in the sanctuary county in which he lived.

In August, a Venezuelan migrant was accused of raping a woman in front a 3-year-old in Erie County, New York. Prosecutors say the suspect and victim knew each other, and the alleged crime is said to have occurred in front of their 3-year-old child, who was also present in the hotel room.

In Texas, in September, Mexican national Juan Vicente Zavala Lopez allegedly shot a police officer in a car chase after killing his roommate. Zavala Lopez is said to have a lengthy criminal history, has been deported nine times before and spent 18 months in a Texas state prison in addition to facing charges in California. 

In December, 16-year-old high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina was stabbed to death in her apartment in Jackson County, Texas, allegedly by Mexican national Rafael Govea Romero, a visa overstayer who was on probation for burglary.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant who had been deported four times between 2009 and 2015 was arrested after allegedly killing a mother and her son in a car crash that police say involved alcohol. Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alaswas first convicted of DWI on Aug. 4, 2007, and received subsequent convictions for the same offense on Dec. 7, 2016, and May 7, 2019. He was also convicted of driving with alcohol on Sept. 16, 2007. 

Also in December, Jose Santiago Chairez was arrested for the shooting death of two sisters in their home in Dallas, Texas, while he also allegedly shot his daughter during the same incident. Chairez allegedly shot sisters Catalina Valdez Andrade, 47, and Merced Andrade Bailon, 43, in the head inside their home and shot his daughter in the arm.

2024

In January, Alonzo Pierre Mingo, a former ICE detainee was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, with intent, for the killings inside a suburban Minneapolis house, where he reportedly used his seasonal UPS uniform to pose as a worker to gain access along with two accomplices. Police said the shooting was a drug-related incident and occurred as two children under the age of 5 looked on.

“The older child can be seen entering the bedroom shortly thereafter, crying hysterically,” police said in a probable cause statement. “Another subsequent video shows the younger child enter the bedroom to check out the female until the older child pulls the younger child away from the deceased female’s body and out of the room.”

Meanwhile, in New York City, a police officer was brutally beaten by a mob of illegal immigrants – as authorities were dealing with a flood of primarily Venezuelan migrants into the sanctuary city. Some of them fled the city, while Jhoan Boada, 22, was arrested later and then released before flipping the bird to waiting reporters. 

In February, Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley was beaten to death, allegedly by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant, while she was out for a jog on the University of Georgia campus. The suspect, Jose Ibarra, was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol in September 2022 and released on parole into the U.S. He would travel to New York City and be charged with child endangerment and driving crime. ICE said he was released before they could issue a detainer. 

Months later, he would be accused in the death of Riley. The case highlighted the challenges facing immigration enforcement, who have had their priorities narrowed under the Biden administration to focus on national security and public safety threats – but who are also facing resistance from sanctuary cities, which limits local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The same month as Riley’s death, Honduran national Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana was arrested in Kenner, Louisiana for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint in a park and stabbing another man during a robbery. Police warned that they are often hindered from dealing with illegal immigrants due to the lack of identifiers and use of aliases. Castellanos-Orellana had reportedly entered the U.S. via Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2023, at a time when the state was dealing with a massive surge in migration.

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Also in February, Nilson Trejo-Granados was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a 2-year-old child in Maryland. Police said he was caught in a shootout between two gangs. Trejo-Granados is not accused of firing the weapon that killed the victim, but he is alleged to have been in a car with a group of people connected to the shootout.

In August, David Davon-Bonilla was accused of attacking a 46-year-old woman in Brooklyn’s famed Coney Island, forcibly raping her at knifepoint alongside an accomplice. 

The same month, authorities confirmed the arrest of an illegal immigrant boyfriend of a Virginia mother who was arrested after her two young sons were found chained to a post by their ankles. Wendi Del Cid Rodriguez and Franklin Arquimedes Viera-Guevara allegedly told investigators they would chain the boys at their ankles for short periods of time to “scare them” so they would not leave the home.

ICE confirmed to Fox that the suspect is a Salvadoran illegal immigrant previously deported in 2019, but he reentered as a “gotaway.”

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In September, ICE announced the arrest of a number of illegal immigrant criminals from Martha’s Vineyard – the liberal vacation hotspot where Florida Gov Ron DeSantis had flown migrants on a private airplane. Among those arrested in late August was 24-year-old Brazilian illegal immigrant Warley Neto. Neto, who illegally entered the United States through the Paso Del Norte border region of Texas and Mexico in 2018, is facing five counts of raping a Massachusetts minor.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, police announced the arrest of multiple suspected Tren de Aragua members in relation to a shooting that occured in Aurora near a block of apartments believed to have been taken over by the gang.

 The Venezuelan nationals, ranging in ages from 19 through 24, all crossed the southern border through Texas illegally in 2022 and 2023, under the Biden administration. All four were arrested by Aurora police and ICE has placed detainer requests on two of them.

Grim death toll as monster leaves state in ruins, authorities can’t confirm missing

Authorities in North Carolina on Sunday confirmed at least 93 storm-related fatalities from Hurricane Helene but still could not account for the number of those who remain missing or unaccounted for. 

Fatalities were reported across 20 counties, according to a morning update from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS).

The vast majority of those fatalities were reported in Buncombe, with 42 deaths, followed by Yancey and Henderson, at 12 and 7, respectively. 

NCDHSS told Fox News Digital that these fatalities were confirmed by the North Carolina Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). 

NCDHSS said there are no missing persons numbers at this time because there are different sources of where missing persons and welfare check requests were reported during the storm. 

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The North Carolina Department of Public Safety told Fox News Digital that efforts are underway to accumulate those numbers. 

Justin J. Graney, Chief of External Affairs and Communications for North Carolina Emergency Management, told Fox News Digital there are “wide area searches taking place since [Hurricane Helen] took place.” 

“This includes grid searches, vehicle searches, damaged structure searches, and searches around areas where debris have collected. Hundreds of responders have conducted said searches,” Graney said. 

Graney explained that local entities take information reported to local 911, the NC 211 call center, social media reporters, shelter occupancy information, and any information reported to an EOC, “to attempt to locate anyone that someone has reported missing or that they have asked to have a welfare check conducted.”

“Many of these types of situations were thankfully resolved when communications systems were brought back online and family and friends were able to connect once again,” Graney said. 

Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina late last month, bringing catastrophic flooding from the storm’s historic rainfall in the North Carolina mountains. 

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Tens of thousands of electricity customers in the region remain without power and some people – including residents of Asheville, still lack running water. 

On Thursday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed the state’s first relief package to address Helene’s devastation, allocating $273 million for immediate needs and giving flexibility to agencies and displaced residents.

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Nearly all the money will serve as the state’s share that is needed to meet the federal government’s match for state and local disaster assistance programs. Other money will be used in part to ensure public-school nutrition employees at closed schools get paid and to help officials administer elections in the coming weeks in the battleground state.

Major swing state polls spell trouble for VP Harris and Democrats

A Washington Post columnist sounded the alarm about a Michigan bellwether congressional district potentially slipping from the Democratic Party’s grasp because local voters aren’t as animated by abortion as they used to be. 

The Post’s James Hohmann wrote on Tuesday that he spoke to Democratic operatives on the ground in Michigan who see less enthusiasm for one of the party’s top issues in the district. It prompted him to wonder whether abortion would be a less animating force in elections across the country.

He opened the piece, asking, “What if abortion is not the galvanizing issue on Election Day that Democrats are expecting? What I heard in Michigan recently made me wonder. Here in the 7th District, a congressional bellwether carried by Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, many voters just don’t prioritize the right to choose nearly as much as they did two years ago.”

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Hohmann noted that the 7th District, which includes the state capital, Lansing, and suburban areas near Detroit, went for former President Trump in the 2016 election, but elected Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., in 2022, who is now seeking the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Now fellow Democrat and aide to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Curtis Hertel, is running against Republican Tom Barret to fill Slotkin’s congressional seat. Barret, a former U.S. Army member and pro-lifer, lost to Slotkin in 2022, but Hertel’s team may not find him as easy to beat as Slotkin did. 

The columnist said that in the midst of this close race, Hertel’s surrogates are finding that voters aren’t responding to abortion as much as they used to, which could spell problems for the party at large. 

“But after Hertel delivered a pep talk to 16 volunteers at a party field office here on a recent Saturday afternoon, state Rep. Jennifer Conlin (D) told the group that she had just returned from knocking on doors and expressed amazement at how much less abortion comes up than when she won two years ago in the aftermath of Dobbs,” Hohmann stated. 

“That’s largely because many Michiganders feel a woman’s right to choose was guaranteed after voters overwhelmingly passed a state ballot referendum in 2022 to enshrine a right to the procedure in the state constitution.”

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Apparently, the issue being less of a priority for some voters is “making it harder for Democrats to appeal to the multitudes of center-right women who crossed over to vote for Slotkin, Whitmer and the abortion initiative in 2022,” he argued.

Hohmann continued, noting how this is another dynamic contributing to “growing anxiety among top Democratic operatives that enthusiasm about voting for [Harris] has gotten shakier” in blue wall states she needs to win like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

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Dem governor in clean-up mode after appearing to mock Christians with pro-Harris video

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer apologized for a social media video in which she wore a Harris-Walz campaign hat and fed Doritos to a kneeling podcast host in what some critics said made a mockery of a sacred Christian rite.

The Democrat was seen in the clip taking a Doritos chip out of a bag and placing it into the mouth of a kneeling liberal podcaster Liz Plank, before the video panned to the governor wearing a camouflage Harris-Walz hat. While Whitmer said the video was intended to spotlight the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that allocated nearly $53 billion towards efforts to bring semiconductor supply chains back to the U.S., religious leaders saw it as a spoof of the sacrament of Holy Communion.

MICHIGAN GOV FEEDS KNEELING FEMALE PODCAST HOST DORITOS WHILE WEARING A HARRIS-WALZ HAT

“It is not just distasteful or ‘strange;’ it is an all-too-familiar example of an elected official mocking religious persons and their practices,” Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) President and CEO Paul A. Long said in a statement representing the views of Catholic leaders in the state.

The video was made as part of a viral TikTok trend where one person feeds another person, who is acting sexually, with the song “Dilemma” by Nelly and Kelly Rowland playing in the background before the first person stares uncomfortably into the camera.

MICHIGAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONDEMN WHITMER’S DORITOS VIDEO STUNT AS OFFENSIVE

Former Trump advisor Tim Murtaugh, for example, posted, “Let’s be clear what’s happening in this video. Gov. Whitmer of Michigan is pretending to give communion to an leftist podcaster on her knees, using a Dorito as the Eucharist while wearing a Harris-Walz hat. Do they want ZERO Catholic votes for Harris?”

Following the backlash, Whitmer apologized for the video and emphasized that the video was not meant to mock people of faith.

“Over 25 years in public service, I would never do something to denigrate someone’s faith,” the governor said in a statement to Fox 2. “I’ve used my platform to stand up for people’s right to hold and practice their personal religious beliefs.”

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“My team has spoken to the Michigan Catholic Conference,” she continued. “What was supposed to be a video about the importance of the CHIPS Act to Michigan jobs, has been construed as something it was never intended to be, and I apologize for that.”

‘SNL’ targets VP Harris’ favored phrase she’s pushing to voters in ‘Family Feud’ skit

“Saturday Night Live” (SNL) mocked Vice President Kamala Harris again on Saturday during a “Family Feud” skit that took aim at the Democratic presidential candidate’s interview responses and her stories about her background and growing up in a middle class family.

Kenan Thompson, who played “Family Feud” host Steve Harvey in the skit, asked Maya Rudolph, who has appeared as Harris over the last few weeks, why she wasn’t winning in a landslide. Rudolph responded, “That’s a question I scream into my pillow every morning.”

Thompson’s first “Family Feud” question asked his contestants to name something that people would keep in a glove box. Rudolph hit her buzzer first and began her answer, saying, “Steve, look, I was raised in a middle class family.”

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“SNL” has used its cold opens to joke about both sides of the aisle over the last few weeks, including skits about both the presidential and VP debates.

“Oh boy, here we go,” Thompson added. 

“I was raised in a middle class family. My mother raised my sister and me. She worked hard and saved up, and we had a second mother too, a small business owner named Mrs. Shelton,” Rudolph quipped, as Thompson attempted to steer the conversation back to what she would keep in her glove compartment. 

Rudolph finally responded, “a Glock, Steve,” referencing Harris’ interview with “60 Minutes,” during which she said she owned a Glock. The “Family Feud” board showed “a gun” was the second answer on the list.

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Thompson then brought the question to the other Democrats on Harris’ team, including Andy Samberg, who played Doug Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Gov. Tim Walz, and Dana Carvey as President Biden.

Asked the same question about what someone might keep in their glove box, Samberg said, “I can’t top that. It was so perfect. I’ll go with the same answer, Steve, a Glock.”

“You want to give the same answer? Seems like a bad strategy,” Thompson said, before “a second gun” appeared as the top answer. 

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Harris has been criticized for dodging questions and giving vague responses during her interviews. Asked by Philadelphia’s 6 ABC anchor Brian Taff during an interview in September about what “specific” plans she has to bring down prices for Americans, Harris started her response by saying she grew up as a “middle class kid.”

“Well, I’ll start with this. I grew up a middle-class kid,” Harris said. “My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard. She was able to finally save up enough money to buy our first house when I was a teenager. 

“You know, I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn,” she continued. “And I was raised to believe and to know that all people deserve dignity, and that we as Americans have a beautiful character. You know, we have ambitions and aspirations and dreams, but not everyone necessarily has access to the resources that can help them fuel those dreams and ambitions.” 

DNA study resolves centuries-old mystery about explorer Christopher Columbus

Spanish scientists announced in a new documentary that first aired on Saturday that DNA analysis shows the 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. 

The documentary titled, “Columbus DNA: The true origin,” which aired on Spain’s national broadcaster TVE, showcases the research of a 22-year investigation led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, Reuters reported. 

Lorente and his team tested samples of remains buried at Seville Cathedral, long believed to be Columbus’ final resting place, though the claim had been contested. Researchers compared the DNA with those of known relatives and descendants of the navigator who led trans-Atlantic expeditions for the Spanish crown from the 1490s onward, inducing European exploration and colonization of the Americas.

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“We have DNA from Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have DNA from Hernando Colón, his son,” Lorente said in the documentary. “And both in the Y chromosome [male] and in the mitochondrial DNA [transmitted by the mother] of Hernando there are traits compatible with Jewish origin.”

Reuters reports that approximately 300,000 Jews resided in Spain before the “Reyes Catolicos,” Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, compelled Jews and Muslims to convert or face exile. The expulsion of Jews from Spain took place in 1492, the same year as Columbus’ famed first voyage.

WILL JULY 4TH, LIKE COLUMBUS DAY, SOON SIMPLY DISAPPEAR?

The word Sephardic is derived from Sepharad, or Spain in Hebrew.

Columbus was traditionally believed to have come from Genoa, Italy, though historians also had theorized him as being a Spanish Jew or perhaps Greek, Basque, Portuguese or British. Lorente’s study analyzed 25 possible locations, but ultimately could only conclude that Columbus was born in Western Europe, Reuters said. 

Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, in 1506, according to Reuters. 

His remains were brought to the island of Hispaniola – currently home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti – in 1542, where he wanted to be buried, and later to Cuba in 1795. Authorities long believed Columbus’ remains were ultimately taken back to Spain, to Seville in 1898. 

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Lorente said his research confirmed that the remains at Seville Cathedral are indeed those of Columbus. 

“The outcome is almost absolutely reliable,” Lorente said.

King Charles refuses to touch common dinner table staple that others are using

After years of skipping lunch, King Charles III is now eating a “superfood.”

The Mail on Sunday reported that the monarch, who is battling an undisclosed form of cancer, now consumes half an avocado with “some reluctance” to keep his strength up. According to the outlet, the 75-year-old is known to rarely stop for a midday meal unless a royal engagement or official event requires it.

The outlet noted that the king broke his habit of skipping lunch on orders from his wife, Queen Camilla, as well as his palace aides and doctors.

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They also shared that Charles prefers to eat avocados on their own, as opposed to smashed on a piece of toast.

“The king’s doctors, like Charles himself, are big believers in holistic medicine, and adding avocado to the monarch’s daily diet is right up their alley,” Christopher Andersen, author of “The King,” told Fox News Digital.

“Charles has never eaten lunch,” Andersen shared. “’I want to go to sleep immediately afterward,’ he once explained, ‘so I skip it.’ But he more than makes up for it with enormous breakfasts, teatimes and dinners.”

According to the outlet, Charles was known to prefer “a brisk walk” to having lunch. He previously told the BBC that he abstains from meat and fish two days a week. He also excludes dairy on one of those days.

Andersen, who interviewed several palace insiders for his book, noted that the meals the king does eat “have always been served to meet his exacting standards.”

And there is zero room for errors, he claimed.

“According to a longtime servant, Charles’ breakfast tray always had to contain a cup and saucer to the right with a silver spoon pointing outward at an angle of five o’clock,” Andersen explained. “Butter must come in three balls – not pats of butter, but they must be balls of butter, and they must be three in number. They must also be properly chilled, or they are sent back.”

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Andersen pointed out that presentation is crucial when it comes to any meals the king consumes.

“The royal toast is always on a silver rack, never on a plate,” Andersen claimed. “Assorted jam, jellies, marmalades and honey are served on a separate silver tray. The king also insists on round ice cubes in his drinks because he thinks squared cubes are too noisy. Breakfast also includes cereal and cut fruit – all small portions. Charles ‘hated large portions,’ the servant revealed, and goes ‘absolutely crazy’ whenever he is served in the U.S., where large portions are the norm.”

Charles does have a guilty pleasure, said Andersen. The author claimed he loves indulging in a “highly caloric fruitcake from Wales.”

“Butter must come in three balls – not pats of butter, but they must be balls of butter, and they must be three in number. They must also be properly chilled, or they are sent back.”

— Christopher Andersen, author of “The King”

And while the king may forgo a midday meal, dinner is always “a big affair.”

“It often consists of game he has shot at one of the royal estates,” said Andersen. “Regardless of the main course, dinner always includes a green salad with a soft-boiled egg. The egg must be cooked to meet the king’s standards of softness. And it’s never met on the first try. On occasion, a half-dozen eggs are sacrificed in the process.”

“Dinner guests at Clarence House, Windsor, Balmoral, Sandringham and Highgrove have been surprised that His Majesty often eats a meal that is entirely different from theirs, prepared especially for him,” said Andersen. “The king refuses to use a saltshaker. A small silver bowl of salt with a silver spoon is always provided to him, wherever he happens to be dining. 

“‘My people take such good care of me,’ he once said when the bowl was brought to him at a Windsor dinner. ‘They always bring my salt.’”

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“By the same token, woe be unto the butler who does not make His Majesty’s dry martini precisely to the sovereign’s liking. As far as alcohol is concerned… before his cancer diagnosis, of course, he would normally consume three or more drinks – a martini before dinner, perhaps, followed by wine and an after-dinner drink. This is nothing compared to the six or seven drinks the Queen Mother would regularly consume in any 24 hours. It worked for her – Charles’ granny lived to be 101!”

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“It is understood that, as he undergoes cancer treatment, he has cut back on his alcohol intake dramatically, but is still allowed the occasional drink,” Andersen continued. “King Charles has always been a bundle of quirks and idiosyncrasies. Adding a daily dose of avocado to the mix for health reasons seems like one of the saner things he’s done when it comes to eating habits.”

Charles is preparing to visit Australia and Samoa in October, Buckingham Palace announced in July. The monarch has been slowly returning to public duties after taking a break following his cancer diagnosis in early February.

The decision to undertake such a long journey will be seen as a sign of Charles’ recovery, even though the program in Australia will be “limited.”

Tom Parker Bowles, the king’s stepson, recently gave a brief update about the monarch’s health to British Vogue. The food writer told the outlet that the king is receiving “the best treatment,” but admitted that cancer is “really a bastard.”

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“The king’s having the best treatment,” said the 49-year-old. “He’s a great man and a tough man, and you’ve just got to get on with it. Of course, anyone who has someone they love with cancer is going to worry.”