Buckingham Palace is being accused of having “double standards” for probing bullying allegations leveled against Meghan Markle — but not the sexual-abuse claims involving Prince Andrew.

Palace-watchers called out “The Firm” on Friday after Queen Elizabeth ordered an investigation into claims that Markle mistreated staff during her stint as a senior royal.

“Why is there an investigation into this bullying but there’s not been an investigation into Prince Andrew and the allegations surrounding Jeffrey Epstein?” Carolyn Durand, co-author of a biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, asked on Sky News.

“Why hasn’t he been urged to cooperate with US authorities?” she added of Andrew, a onetime close pal of wealthy late convicted pedophile Epstein.

Believed to be the Queen’s favorite son, Andrew, 61, became wrapped up in the Epstein scandal after one of the financier’s victims claimed she was forced to sleep with the royal when she was 17.

The scandal over Andrew’s friendship with Epstein led the Duke of York to step back from his royal duties in November 2019, after a disastrous BBC interview in which he offered a slew of bizarre claims to defend himself against Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s allegations.

While Andrew was sidelined, Buckingham Palace never ordered an investigation into the allegations against him.

Durand, the co-author of “Finding Freedom,” also noted that Prince Harry was stripped of his three honorary military titles when he and his wife stepped down as senior royals last year to pursue a new life in California.

“Why were Prince Harry’s military honors stripped but Prince Andrew’s haven’t been?” Durand asked.

She added that “the double standards” were something Markle had “really struggled with” during her time as a working royal.

Both Markle, 39, and her husband, Prince Harry, 34, have denied the bullying allegations against the duchess, though they are reportedly expected to be involved in the investigation.

The couple claims they are victims of a calculated “smear campaign” from the royal family ahead of their hotly anticipated Oprah Winfrey interview.

I don’t usually work with any music — it often distracts me — but recently, when I’ve needed a little music on in the background, I’ve become obsessed with lo-fi remixes of video game music on YouTube.

I’ve already gone on record that I sometimes listen to video game music while working because a) I’m a huge nerd, and b) a lot of video game music is already designed to be pleasant background noise that can loop endlessly without becoming annoying. It wouldn’t be all that much fun spending hours upon hours in the worlds of Pokémon if the music was always in-your-face and distracting, after all. (I will give Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire’s hilariously prominent horns a pass here.)

It makes sense, then, that the infinitely listenable quality of video game music, much of which has become seared to my brain after days spent in virtual worlds, combines really well with the soft electronic sounds of lo-fi chillhop beats, which I can also listen to for hours on end. Now, I’m hooked.

Here are a few remixes I recommend.

If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy VII’s amazing soundtrack, I think you’ll dig this set of remixes from Rifti Beats. I think I go back to this video more than any other. (And there’s a part two!)

“Zelda & Chill 2” from GameChops puts a fantastic spin on some classic Zelda tunes. (The “Midna’s Lament” remix is so, so good.) If you like what you hear, you might want to listen to the original “Zelda & Chill.”

I recently beat Nier: Automata, and I couldn’t get the game’s incredible music out of my head. I’ve recently turned to this remix of two of the game’s best songs — the city ruins theme and the amusement park theme — from Alex Moukala (a name you might recognize as the originator of the funky remixes of the Wii’s Mii Channel).

If you’re familiar with the Persona series’s very good music, you might want to give this set of remixes from Courtar a listen.

And if you don’t want to sort through the many mixes available on YouTube, just turn on GameChops’ Video Game Study Lounge live stream. (In a spooky coincidence, I opened it to grab the link, and it was playing that “Midna’s Lament” remix I mentioned earlier. The song is just that good!)

Happy listening. And tweet at me with any recommendations you have!

The governor of South Carolina took a victory lap after his gubernatorial colleagues in Texas and Mississippi lifted their mask mandates, touting the fact that his state never had such a mandate. 

“Unlike Texas and Mississippi, we cannot lift a mask mandate because we never had one in the first place,” Gov. Henry McMaster tweeted. 

“South Carolina took a measured approach and never closed. We gave South Carolinians the freedom to choose for themselves what’s best for their health and family,” McMaster, a Republican, added. 

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT ANNOUNCES PLAN TO FULLY REOPEN BUSINESSES, END STATE MASK MANDATE

The governor included a video in his tweet, depicting several news reports covering his decision not to issue a mask mandate similar to other states.

“We never closed,” said McMaster in the video. “Our reasonable steps of limited, measured and temporary actions allowed us to combat the virus without crippling our economy.”

McMaster’s victory lap post comes days after Texas and Mississippi announced they would be rolling back mask mandates and reopening their economies.

President Biden attacked the two governors after the announcement, saying the governors’ decisions to lift mask mandates was “Neanderthal thinking.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the president’s comment, saying the quip was a “reflection” of Biden’s “frustration and exasperation.”

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The comments drew ire from Republicans, however, with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., firing back on Twitter that the president should “seek training for his unconscious bias” toward Neanderthals.

He also called on Biden to “apologize for his insensitive comments.”

“President Biden’s use of an old stereotype is hurtful to modern Europeans, Asians & Americans who inherit about 2% of their genes from Neanderthal ancestors,” wrote Rubio, who linked out to an article in the tweet.