Royal news live: King Charles says painful past still hurts as calls for slavery reparations grow in Samoa

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.”

King Charles said the past cannot be changed as he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The British royal understood “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate”, he told leaders at a summit of Commonwealth countries in Samoa.

But Charles stopped short of mentioning financial reparations that some leaders at the event urged for and instead exhorted them to find the “right language” and an understanding of history “to guide us towards making the right choices in future where inequality exists”.

“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, who is attending his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or Chogm, as Britain’s head of state.

The gathering of presidents and prime ministers for the Chogm could see member states begin a “meaningful conversation” about the issue of reparations for slavery, according to reports.

Rugby player Mike Tindall found himself in trouble after he joked about the royal family wanting to “fill Harry in”, podcast co-host James Haskell revealed.

Podcast hosts Tindall, Haskell, and Alex Payne have reelased a book called ‘The Good, the Bad & the Rugby - Unleashed’, in which Haskell revealed the awkward joke made by Tindall, who is married to the late Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall.

“[Mike] even got into a bit of trouble when he appeared on a live version of A Question of Sport: he told a story about him and Iain Balshaw pretending to punch Prince Harry at a post-World Cup final party in 2003 and joked that the royal family wanted to fill him in for real,” Mr Haskell explained.

“I say trouble but it was a bit of a minor kerfuffle, nothing to write home about.”

But the story came back into public consciousness when that “very odd bloke Omid Scobie started sticking up for Harry and Meghan,” Haskell wrote, according to the Mirror.

“Loads of trolls went in on Tins, especially about him wanting to fill in a young, defenceless Harry. All context, sarcasm and humour lost, when things are taken out of the zone they were meant to be in.”

The King is expected to tell world leaders that unity is their strength, enabling them to tackle the “demands of our time”, when he officially opens a major Commonwealth summit for the first time.

Charles will address presidents and prime ministers when he launches the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Samoa on Friday, saying “all nations are equal in this unique and voluntary association” which “is committed to developing free and democratic societies”.

The event will be a milestone moment for the UK’s head of state, who is expected to highlight the purpose and strengths of the “family of nations”.

He is also expected to speak about the importance of recognising and understanding the path of history, and where that may have given rise to contemporary challenges.

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.

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