Royal news live: King Charles says painful past can’t be changed as calls for slavery reparation grow in Samoa

The King has told world leaders about the importance of “connections” in a time of “ heightened global tensions” and “horrifyibg conflict”.

Charles used his first speech to the Commonwealth’s biennial summit in Samoa as head of the family of nations, to stress the importance of their relationships.

“At a time of heightened global tensions, of horrifying conflict and challenges of the greatest magnitude, it seems to me that these connections between us are more precious than ever,” he told the gathered leaders.

Long after the Queen has gone to sleep, the King can be found “toiling” away into the small hours.

That’s what Queen Camilla joked of her 75-year-old husband’s diligence, as she gave a speech praising the work ethic of women.

At an event in Samoa led by leading domestic abuse campaigners from around the world, Camilla told the audience the legend of the men and women who were tasked with thatching the roof of Samoan chief Tautunu’s house.

“Although they started at the same time, the women finished their side first, as they had laboured through the night, while the men slept,” she told attendees of the women’s forum event at the major summit for Commonwealth leaders in Samoa.

“As one whose husband is often toiling into the small hours, long after my head is on the pillow, I should stress there are plenty of exceptions,” she added.

“But the moral of the proverb is: Women will turn their hands successfully to any task that must be done; and will work hard until it is completed.”

An Indigenous senator has intensified her criticism of King Charles, again accusing the British monarch of complicity in the “genocide” against Australia’s First Nations peoples and declaring on Wednesday she will not be “shut down.”

Sen. Lidia Thorpe’s comments followed an encounter with the monarch at a parliamentary reception Monday where she was escorted out after shouting at him for British colonizers taking Indigenous land and bones.

Despite facing political and public backlash, Thorpe was resolute in a television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and said she would continue to press for justice.

More here.

An alpaca sneezed on King Charles III as he greeted crowds on a walkabout in Canberra, Australia.

Owner Robert Fletcher brought nine-year-old alpaca Hefner to meet the monarch outside the Australian War Memorial.

Hefner was calmly waiting — wearing a crown and a gold bow tie — before leaving the King “in disbelief” with a sneeze after Charles stroked his nose.

King Charles said the Commonwealth mattered “a great deal” his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, who was seen as a unifying figure among the body.

Charles attended his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or Chogm as Britain’s head of state yesterday, where he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Britain’s handling of its involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seen by many observers as a litmus test for the Commonwealth’s adaptation to a modern-day world, as other European nations and some British institutions have started to own up to their role in the trade.

The UK has never formally apologized for its role in the trade, in which millions of African citizens were kidnapped and transported to plantations in the Caribbean and Americas over several centuries, enriching many individuals and companies.

Studies estimate Britain would owe between hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars in compensation to the descendants of slaves.

None of us can change the past but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to write the inequalities that endure,” said Charles.

Keir Starmer has faced renewed calls for Britain to pay slavery reparations which could far exceed £200bn as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chgom) in Samoa gets underway.

A group of 15 Caribbean governments, as part of the Caribbean Community or ‘Caricom’ organisation, have all agreed to table reparations on the Chgom agenda when the group meets.

Defying the UK, with Sir Keir saying he does not want to discuss the matter, a draft communique for the summit places it firmly on the agenda, reading: “Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”

All three candidates for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General role have supported reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism.

Nadine White reports.

King Charles has warned Commonwealth leaders against the “existential” threat of climate change, encouraging all 56 members to do everything possible to cut emissions.

He told the summit that humanity needed to “forge a future of harmony with nature and between ourselves” and that climate concerns have been raised with him over and over again.

“This year alone we have seen terrifying storms in the Caribbean, devastating flooding in East Africa and catastrophic wildfires in Canada,” he told the leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Samoa.

“I can only offer every encouragement for action with unequivocal determination to arrest rising temperatures by cutting emissions, building resilience as far as possible to both the current and forecast impacts of climate change, and conserving and restoring nature both on land and in the sea.”