A mayor and a monarch.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla are in New York City on Wednesday, April 29, to lay a bouquet of flowers at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum as part of their U.S. visit to mark the nation's 250th anniversary. The king and queen's four-day trip began in Washington on April 27 and has included a speech by Charles to the U.S. Congress and meetings with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump amid simmering tensions between the U.S. and the United Kingdom over the Iran war.
The royals are set to meet families of victims and first responders and they will be greeted by elected officials —including New York’s newly-inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The meeting with the city's first Muslim mayor comes with significance at home and abroad as the politician's profile grows in the U.K.
Here's what the royals' encounter with the mayor means.
Charles and Camilla's tour of Ground Zero is the first time the royals have visited the memorial to commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, was linked to the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda. In the aftermath of 9/11, the country also experienced a massive surge in Islamophobia, with FBI data indicating anti-Muslim hate crimes skyrocketed by 1,600% in 2001.
