February 2

 I’m going to start today with the British royal family. It’s kind of unbelievable we were once ruled by these people.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew. Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Andrew’s arrest

Yesterday brought the first arrest of a senior member of the royal family since 1647, when Charles I was charged with treason and eventually beheaded.

This time, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, is under suspicion of “misconduct in public office” during his time as Britain’s trade envoy. The accusation follows years of reports about his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The former prince was released from custody by evening, but the investigation continues. If he’s prosecuted, he faces a possible life sentence.

We’re a long way from the last criminal episode involving the royals — the time Princess Anne’s bull terrier, Dotty, bit two children near Windsor Castle in 2002.

The arrest came after the disclosure of Epstein’s files by the U.S. Justice Department. British prosecutors didn’t say much about their current investigation. But local reporters had previously described emails in which Andrew, as I’ll call him here, appeared to give Epstein confidential trade documents in the early 2010s.

In the United States, lawmakers had to pry information about Epstein from the federal government, and the Justice Department has not announced any new prosecutions of Epstein’s associates. Britain, by contrast, has already arrested the onetime Duke of York.

The British investigation hasn’t mentioned abuse of women by Andrew, though. He has faced no legal jeopardy for his treatment of Virginia Giuffre, whom he paid to settle a New York lawsuit in which she said he had raped her when she was 17. Instead, British officials are looking at his years in government service. It reminds me of the American authorities’ pursuit of the gangster Al Capone. (They wanted him for murder. They charged him with tax evasion.)

Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Who is this Windsor?

Andrew turned 66 yesterday. (Can’t have been a fun birthday. “Many Crappy Returns,” a headline in a British tabloid read.) He is the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Elizabeth, watchers of the royals say, considered Andrew her favorite son.

He was raised in a world of almost unimaginable privilege, taught first by a governess at Buckingham Palace, then by instructors at the same boarding school his father and brother had attended. An appointment to the Royal Navy followed. He trained as a helicopter pilot, enrolled at Britain’s naval college and eventually served his nation with distinction during the Falklands War. People really liked him then, the dashing playboy.

Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, whom he’d known since childhood, in 1986. They had two children before divorcing amicably a decade later, around the same time he became close with Epstein. (Fergie’s in the Epstein files, too. The prince emailed her to ask if she’d put out a statement saying that he was “not a pedo.”)

The relationship between the two men appeared at least partly transactional. Andrew was working as a trade envoy for the government, and Epstein was ostensibly a titan in finance. The connection offered “seriously beneficial outcomes,” Andrew explained in a disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC. He said he regretted that Epstein conducted himself in a “manner unbecoming,” but viewers found the prince insincere.

Soon after, Andrew stepped away from public life. Last fall, his brother, the king, stripped his title as prince. Yesterday, he was arrested.

King Charles, then a prince, and Andrew at their father’s funeral in 2021. Leon Neal/Pool, via Associated Press

The king’s headache

King Charles III was unequivocal in his response. He said investigators “have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation.” He added, “Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.”

Should that course result in a prosecution, the king will be a part of it. All criminal cases in Britain are brought in the name of the monarch, who is listed on official documents as “Rex” — meaning it could be big-brother king versus little-brother defendant in court. What an amazing country.

The court of public opinion will issue its own ruling on the woes of the House of Windsor. King Charles, for his part, wants to portray a crown that holds itself to account, that exists as a responsible and honest shepherd of the nation. The royal statement — not from Buckingham Palace but from Charles himself — ended by explaining what the clan would do while the investigation unspooled. “My family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all,” he wrote.

There is something quintessentially, maybe even cartoonishly, British about the whole approach: stiffening his upper lip, keeping calm, carrying on. Hours after the arrest of his brother, Charles attended a fashion show.

Read what we know about Andrew’s arrest and what could happen next.

THE LATEST NEWS

The White House Ballroom

The site of the demolished East Wing of the White House. Eric Lee for The New York Times

A commission approved final plans for Trump’s $400 million ballroom addition to the White House, even as one member revealed that the public’s response to the plan had been widely negative. The final ballroom plan is notably different from earlier versions. See the changes. Trump has been dumping rubble from the project into a public park in Washington — part of his plan to turn it into a luxury golf destination.

Politics

The Labor Secretary’s husband was barred from the agency’s premises after at least two female staff members said he had sexually assaulted them in the office. Large banners of Trump now hang from multiple federal buildings in Washington, including the Justice Department. Meta will spend $65 million this year to help state politicians who are friendly to the A.I. industry, beginning this week in Texas and Illinois.

Immigration

Refugees who haven’t applied for green cards could be arrested under a new Trump administration policy. The police in Minnesota are investigating an ICE arrest last month that left a man with a fractured skull and bleeding in his brain.

The Economy

U.S. imports grew last year, and the trade deficit remained large, despite Trump’s tariffs. Tell us about your taxes: Republicans passed tax cuts last year, and we want to hear from readers who plan to claim the new benefits. Share your experience here.

Around the World

Lindsay and Craig Foreman in a photograph released by their family. Free Lindsay and Craig Campaign, via Reuters

Iran: A British couple arrested last year during an around-the-world motorcycle trip has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for “security crimes.” Sudan: The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces acted with “genocidal intent” during its 18-month assault on the city of El Fasher, according to a U.N. report. Cuba: A Times analysis shows that the Trump administration has established an effective blockade of the country and is pushing it toward a humanitarian crisis. Russia: A Texas investor with ties to the Trump family said he had signed a deal with a Russian company to develop natural gas in Alaska. The Kremlin has been promoting investment opportunities with Russia since Trump returned to office.

Other Big Stories

Among those killed in the Lake Tahoe avalanche: a group of six moms who connected through their shared love of the outdoors. Alan Dershowitz helped create modern press freedom. Now he is asking the Supreme Court to revise or destroy it. (Sign up for The Docket, our new legal newsletter.)

OPINIONS

The Constitution says people born on American soil are Americans. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship can’t change this, Akhil Reed Amar writes.

John Guida and Nate Silver discussed the Democratic front-runners for president in 2028.

Here is a column by Michelle Goldberg on how Trump doesn’t care if the public is with him on Iran.

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MORNING READS

In Japan. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Meet Punch: A baby monkey in Japan had trouble making friends, aside from his stuffed orangutan toy. On the internet, though, he became a celebrity.

Freedom House: A Black paramedic crew in Pittsburgh was a pioneer in emergency care. Now it’s back in the spotlight, thanks partly to “The Pitt.”

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a dilapidated mansion for sale in Brooklyn.

TODAY’S NUMBER

1,106 feet

— That is the length of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, which is sailing toward the Middle East as part of Trump’s military buildup in the region. About 5,000 sailors and airmen are on board, and five guided-missile destroyers accompany it.

WINTER OLYMPICS

The U.S. women’s hockey team. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Hockey: The U.S. women completed a perfect run in Milan with a thrilling, 2-1 overtime victory over Canada.

Figure skating: Alysa Liu of Team U.S.A. captured gold in the women’s singles competition. Liu entered yesterday’s free skate in third place but posted her best score of the season to become the first U.S. gold medalist in the event since 2002. See a video of her performance.

Speedskating: Jordan Stolz came in second, behind Ning Zhongyan of China, in the 1,500-meter event, adding a silver medal to the golds he won in the 500-meter and 1,000-meter races.

Freestyle skiing: Eileen Gu of China recovered from a fall to qualify for the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe final.

The Athletic

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Julia Gartland for The New York Times

If you have a pint of cooked rice in the freezer, as you should because I remind you to so often, this endlessly adaptable recipe for cumin chicken fried rice makes for a lovely end-of-week meal. (If you don’t, make some rice this evening and freeze it for later use.) I like the recipe as written, with chunked skinless chicken thighs as the protein, but lamb takes up the cumin and stir-fry sauce beautifully, as does tofu. Just make sure to adjust the amount of fat you use for frying. Lamb or a well-marbled fist of beef will need less than you’d use for the chicken, tofu or shrimp.

CROWD CONTROL

Max Amini Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Meet Max Amini, the most popular standup comic you probably haven’t heard of. Over the weekend, he sold out Madison Square Garden, the first Iranian American comic to do so. Where’d the guy come from? Not Netflix, where the comedy special was once ascendant, but YouTube, where he performs a lot of what’s called crowd work — riffing with the audience.

“Amini quietly listens to people talk for long stretches,” writes Jason Zinoman, our comedy critic, who went to the Garden to see him. “His patience leads to dead spaces, but also a sense that things could be going off the rails. At one point, a drunk audience member hijacked the show. At another, a woman told a long story about seeing a medium that almost no one in the arena could hear. Amini got his biggest laughs mocking the audience members, calling back to them, weaving them into a story. What becomes clear is they are not just seeing the show. They are the show.”

Read more about Amini’s rise here.

More on culture

Vincent van Gogh relied on yellow to create some of his most recognizable canvases. A new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam explores how he used the color and how it connected him to other artists. “Lincoln in the Bardo,” a new opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek based on the best-selling novel, will have its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in October. The season will open, however, with something old rather than new: Verdi’s “Macbeth,” featuring Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano who has become one of opera’s biggest box office draws. Stephen Colbert had some thoughts on Trump’s Board of Peace.