By DANICA KIRKA and BRIAN MELLEY

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince Harry joined his father, King Charles III, for tea on Wednesday at the monarch’s London home, the first time they’ve met in well over a year.

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The two have been distant since Harry and his wife, Meghan, left royal life and moved to California in 2020 and then publicly aired grievances about the royal family.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that Charles and Harry spent time together at Clarence House, where the king lives when he’s in the capital.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Harry was driven through the gates of the four-story mansion not far from Buckingham Palace. He was seen leaving less than an hour later, as he ducked down in the car enroute to an evening event for his Invictus Games, which supports injured and sick service members and veterans.

There had been speculation that Harry might meet his father after he arrived in the U.K. on Monday, the third anniversary of the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, for a four-day trip during which he will visit several of the charities he supports.

A meeting in July between representatives of the king, 76, and his wayward son, 40, led to suggestions that the frigid relationship between Harry and his family might be thawing.

The split had deepened over the past five years as Harry and Meghan aired their grievances with the royal family in a tell-all interview to Oprah Winfrey and a revealing Netflix series. Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, then fueled the tensions by revealing personal conversations in his memoir, “Spare.”

Harry and his father last met in February 2024, when the prince flew to London after receiving news that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer. Harry spent about 45 minutes with Charles before the king flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate from his treatment.

Harry has also had little contact with his elder brother, Prince William, heir to the throne.

Harry was last in London in April, when the Court of Appeal rejected his bid to restore a police protection detail that was canceled after he stopped being a working royal. Charles was on a state visit to Italy at the time, so a meeting then was impossible.

That case was itself an impediment to improved relations because it involved Harry criticizing the king’s government in the courts. But once it was over, change became possible.

Immediately after the case ended, Harry said he would “love reconciliation with my family.”

“There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” he told the BBC on the day the court case was resolved. “Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has.”

Despite that olive branch, Harry had also struck a combative tone. The prince repeatedly said the decision to withdraw his security was made at the direction of the royal household in an effort to control him and his wife while putting their safety at risk.

“What I’m struggling to forgive, and what I will probably always struggle to forgive, is the decision that was made in 2020 that affects my every single day and that is knowingly putting me and my family in harm’s way,” Harry said.

But with the lawsuit out of the way, there were signs of change.

In July, the new team handling Harry and Meghan’s communications, headed by Los Angeles-based Meredith Maines, was seen on the balcony of a private members’ club in London speaking with Tobyn Andreae, the king’s press representative. The Mail on Sunday tabloid took a photo of what it called: “The secret Harry peace summit.”

Regardless of who tipped off the newspaper, it showed a change of tone since the meeting wouldn’t have happened if the principals hadn’t given their tacit consent.

Following the long-awaited meeting Wednesday, Harry dashed to his next charity appearance at an Invictus Games event across town.

When a reporter asked about his father’s health, the prince offered his firsthand opinion: “Yes he’s great, thank you.”

James Outman made a pair of nice plays in center field on Wednesday, but it was the ball that he couldn’t grab that loomed large in the Twins’ loss.

Bryce Teodosio’s long fly ball landed to the back side of a leaping Outman, going for a leadoff triple in the bottom of the eighth inning. He quickly scored the go-ahead run on a Mike Trout sacrifice fly in the Los Angeles Angels’ 4-3 win over the Twins at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

“It’s a tough play,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The mentality that I want all of our outfielders to have is to want every ball, want every ball hit at him and want the opportunity to make a great play. We didn’t make it today, unfortunately. It’s part of the game.”

The Twins (64-82) dropped the finale of their six-game road trip after a nice start from Taj Bradley, who pitched into the seventh inning and had his team well positioned to grab a win.

Bradley allowed three runs — all in the third inning and two on a Zach Neto home run — but otherwise turned in a solid performance, allowing just four hits and maintaining his stuff well through his start. Three of those four hits came in that third inning. The only other time he really faced trouble was in the sixth, but he induced an inning-ending double play to keep the score tied.

“(I’m) just thankful they let me go out there,” Bradley said. “I worked hard in that fifth inning, sixth inning too, to stay out there and get the pitches, and keep it at a quality start and keep the team a chance to win after they evened up the score for me going in with that big home run.”

But while Bradley did his part, his teammates had chances against their teammate José Ureña and the Angels’ bullpen that they could not convert.

Trevor Larnach was thrown out in the first inning at the plate for the third out, and in both the third and fourth, the Twins left the bases loaded. They finished 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 on base.

The Twins scored their three runs via the long ball with Outman’s second home run of the series putting them on the board in the third and Byron Buxton’s 31st blast of the season, an opposite-field shot to right in the sixth to tie the game.

“We had every opportunity today right in front of us. The capitalizing wasn’t there when we needed it, and we know that,” Baldelli said. “That’s one where you feel you keep putting yourself up in that good spot, one guy on, two, three guys on, and you know that if you keep doing that, you’re going to win most of the time.”

Festa update

David Festa’s search for answers continues after meeting with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday in Texas.

Meister, Twins head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said, “feels that (Festa) is suffering from neurological thoracic outlet syndrome,” and has referred him to a thoracic surgeon in the Dallas-area. That doctor is currently out of town, but once he returns and meets with Festa, the Twins will have a better idea of his treatment plan.

Injections are a potential treatment, Paparesta said, as is surgery, which would be the “worst-case scenario.”

This type of thoracic outlet syndrome occurs when “the brachial plexus nerve, which is the nerve of the shoulder … there may be something impeding one of those nerves,” Paparesta said.

Festa, who was near a return after making a rehab start late last month, felt a recurrence of symptoms in his shoulder days later, prompting the Twins to send him to meet with Meister. The starter missed time in April while in Triple-A to allow shoulder inflammation to calm down. He then returned and pitched until July, when he was placed on the injured list.

Briefly

Christian Vázquez (shoulder infection) has been running, lifting, hitting, catching off the Trajekt machine and playing long toss, Paparesta said. The Twins will continue to ramp him up throughout their homestand and then see where he is in his attempt to return. … The Twins have Thursday off and then will send Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober to the mound this weekend against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After missing the Monday night game between the Vikings and the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, veteran safety Harrison Smith said he expects to return in the near future.

Though he did not go into detail about the personal health issue he has been dealing with for the past month or so, Smith chatted with reporters Wednesday at TCO Performance Center and indicated he has made progress. It was the first time he has spoken publicly since training camp.

“I’m just trying to get my conditioning up,” Smith said. “I’m moving around well.”

How long does he expect it will take for him to get his conditioning where it needs to be?

“I think I’ll be able to bounce back pretty quick as far as building stamina,” Smith said. “It’s a new experience, so I’m figuring it out.”

The fact the Vikings did not place Smith on injured reserve suggested they didn’t feel this was going to keep him out longer than a month.

It’s unclear if Smith will play when the Vikings host the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. He was listed as a limited participant in walkthrough on Wednesday afternoon at TCO Performance.

“We’re kind of fluid with if I’m ready to go or not, and if I am going to help the team or not,” Smith said. “That all matters.”

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By MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK (AP) — Polly Holliday, a Tony Award-nominated screen and stage actor who turned the catchphrase “Kiss my grits!” into a national retort as the gum-chewing, beehive-wearing waitress aboard the long-running CBS sitcom “Alice,” has died. She was 88.

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Holliday died Tuesday at her home in New York, said her theatrical agent, Dennis Aspland. She was the last surviving member of the principal cast of “Alice;” Linda Lavin, who played the title character, died last year.

“Alice” ran from 1976 to 1985, but Holliday had turned into such a star that the network gave her her own short-lived spin-off called “Flo” in 1980. It lasted a year.

Holliday earned four Golden Globe nominations and won one in 1980 for “Alice,” as well as four Emmy Award nominations, three for “Alice” and one for “Flo.”

As for the “Kiss my grits!” line, the Alabama-born Holliday was quick to distance herself from it, telling interviewers that the line was “pure Hollywood” and not a regional saying. But she identified with Flo.

“She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places,” she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. “Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down.”

FILE – Actors Polly Holliday, center, and Vic Tayback, left, appear with actor Danny DeVito after receiving their Golden Globe awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 26, 1980. (AP Photo/George Brich, File)

Holliday’s career included stints on Broadway — including a Tony nod opposite Kathleen Turner in a 1990 revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” — and lots of TV, including playing the blind sister to Betty White’s character in “Golden Girls.” On the big screen, her credits included John Grisham 1995 legal thriller series “The Client” and portraying a protective secretary in “All the President’s Men.”

Her Broadway credits include “All Over Town” in 1974 directed by Dustin Hoffman, “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1986 with Jean Stapleton and Abe Vigoda, and a revival of “Picnic” with Kyle Chandler in 1994.

Some of her more memorable credits include the wicked Mrs. Deagle in “Gremlins,” Tim Allen’s sassy mother-in-law on “Home Improvement” and off-Broadway in “A Quarrel of Sparrows,” in which The New York Times said she radiated “a refreshingly touching air of willed, cheerful imperturbability.”