London:

King Charles shared a joyful moment with the New Zealand women’s rugby union team at Buckingham Palace, where he exchanged hugs with the Black Ferns.

The rugby team also clicked a selfie with King Charles, in a memorable moment shared by the Black Ferns on social media.

It was New Zealand’s winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga who broke the protocol and asked the King if he was okay to share hugs with the Black Ferns. To which King Charles did not waste any time and immediately agreed to it.

“We all wanted a hug, but only if it’s okay with you,” Leti-I’iga asked politely.

“A hug? Why not?” King Charles replied.

Currently, The Black Ferns are in the UK to take on England’s Red Roses on Saturday at Twickenham.

Ahead of the match, Buckingham Palace hosted the New Zealand women’s rugby union team to honour the visiting players.

Meanwhile, The Royal Family announced that the King and Queen will travel to Australia and Samoa from October 18 to 26.

“Their Majesties The King and Queen will undertake an Autumn Tour from Friday 18th – Saturday 26th October 2024. This will include a Royal Visit to Australia, State Visit to The Independent State of Samoa and attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2024,” The Royal Family stated in a statement.

King Charles will also attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which will take place in Samoa.

“The King’s visit to Australia will be His Majesty’s first to a Realm as Monarch, whilst the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa is the first The King will attend as Head of the Commonwealth. In both countries, Their Majesties’ engagements will focus on themes designed to celebrate the best of Australia and Samoa, as well as reflecting aspects of The King and Queen’s work,” it added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A new portrait of King Charles in military attire has been unveiled in honour of Armed Forces Day. The photograph, captured in Windsor Castle’s Grand Corridor, depicts the monarch seated in his Field Marshal’s ceremonial dress adorned with medals, sword, and decorations.

The release of this image coincides with Queen Camilla’s tribute to armed forces members, whom she described in a video message as a source of inspiration, reassurance, and pride.

Armed Forces Day, observed on the final Saturday in June, pays homage to veterans, military personnel, and service families, a tradition established in the UK in the late 2000s, BBC reported. 

Photographed last November by Hugo Burnand, known for his royal photography including the King’s 2023 coronation portraits, King Charles is adorned in the Field Marshal’s uniform, the highest rank in the British Army. As monarch, he serves as ceremonial head of the armed forces.

During his recent attendance at D-Day commemorations in Normandy, France, King Charles donned a tan version of the Field Marshal’s uniform.

In her video message from Clarence House, Queen Camilla praised the ‘incredible bravery’ of military personnel who initiated Europe’s liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944.

She said that 80 years on, the “same spirit and those same qualities remain much in evidence throughout our Armed Forces”, who “undertake your duties in the face of a multitude of challenges and dangers”.

The Queen added: “In so doing, you not only protect these Isles, but also defend liberties way beyond these shores.

“Your determination, unrelenting efforts and selfless loyalty to each other and to the United Kingdom are as enduring as our gratitude.”

The patron of the British Forces Broadcasting Service charity, responsible for the video, extended gratitude to the families of servicemen and women who maintain home life while their loved ones serve abroad.

Reflecting on her father Major Bruce Shand’s service in North Africa and Dunkirk during World War Two, where he earned the Military Cross, the Queen remarked, ‘As the daughter of an Army officer, I understand the profound impact military life has on families. You too are heroes.'”

“In times of war and in times of peace, whether seen or unseen, our armed forces support and strengthen our nation. You are a source of inspiration, reassurance and pride – and I salute you all.”
 

Kericho, Kenya:

When the then-Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, Kibore Cheruiyot Ngasura was among a group of young men chosen to sing for her at an event near Lake Victoria.

The men planned to use the occasion to petition Elizabeth to relocate their parents from a detention camp in the barren, mosquito-infested town of Gwassi, where members of the Talai clan had been held for nearly two decades on suspicion of fomenting resistance to British colonial rule.

The event never happened. Before Elizabeth could make it to Lake Victoria, word came that her father, King George VI, had died. The new queen hurried back to London.

More than 70 years later, Elizabeth’s son, King Charles, will visit Kenya this week on a state visit. And Ngasura, now about 100 years old, again has a message for the royal visitor.

“I wish to inform him that we should be compensated for the hardship that we went through,” Ngasura told Reuters outside his house, a small wooden and iron structure on a grassy hill with two lightbulbs and no running water.

Buckingham Palace has said Charles’ visit, which begins on Tuesday, will acknowledge “painful aspects of the UK and Kenya’s shared history”. The British ruled for more than six decades before Kenyan won its independence in 1963.

But for some communities in western Kenya’s fertile highlands, the injustices caused by British colonisation are as much present-day realities as historical memories.

A U.N. report in 2021 said more than half a million Kenyans around the western town of Kericho suffered gross human rights violations including unlawful killings and land expropriation during British colonial rule.

The colonial administration took hundreds of square kilometres of land that communities in western Kenya had lived on for generations and handed it to British settlers. Much of it became tea plantations that today belong to multinational companies, the U.N. report said.

“Our people, most of them, are living below poverty level,” said Joel Kimetto, a representative of the Kipsigis ethnic group, of which the Talai are one of 196 clans.

“The majority of the vast fertile lands were taken by the British and our people were chased away to the native reserves where it is hilly, rocky, slopey and unproductive,” he said.

A spokesperson for the British government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office noted that the UK government had previously expressed regret for abuses committed during a 1952-1960 uprising in central Kenya against colonial rule.

It agreed to an out-of-court settlement in 2013 to pay almost 20 million pounds to elderly Kenyans who suffered torture and abuse during what is known by Kenyans as “the emergency” after a London court ruled the victims could sue.

“We believe the most effective way for the UK to respond to the wrongs of the past is to ensure that current and future generations learn the lessons from history, and that we continue to work together to tackle today’s challenges,” the spokesperson said in response to questions from Reuters.

The spokesperson did not address the allegations raised by the Kipsigis and Talai, which are separate from the abuses during the emergency. Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment.

‘NO INTENTION’ TO COMPENSATE

Charles will not travel to western Kenya during his visit, which will take him to the capital Nairobi and eastern port city of Mombasa, according to a statement from the palace.

The British government has not been receptive in the past to requests by the Kipsigis and Talai to discuss compensation. In 2019, it informed the communities it had “no intention to enter any process” to resolve the claims, according to the U.N. report.

Ngasura said he was about 12-years-old – he does not know his exact birth date – in 1934 when the British rounded up around 700 Talais and forced them to march for weeks to reach Gwassi.

Following protests by the young men, he and a few dozen others were relocated in 1945 to a detention camp closer to Kericho, where they could find wives from their community.

They were finally released in 1962, but the land where they had once grazed their livestock and collected honey now belonged to British settlers and tea companies.

Ngasura was able to scrape together the money to buy a small plot from a British army captain. Today, he and his descendants who live there survive off of a half-dozen cows and some maize crops.

It is no comparison to what he knew as a child.

“We could take cows anywhere. The land was huge,” he recalled. “This land is not big enough. Otherwise we would have kept a lot of cows and grown coffee.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

A man has been arrested for trespassing after police were alerted to a person climbing into the Royal Mews close to Buckingham Palace, London’s Metropolitan Police said Saturday.

At 1:25 am (0025 GMT) on Saturday morning, “officers at Buckingham Palace responded to a person climbing the wall and entering the Royal Mews”, Met Police said.

“A 25-year-old man was detained by officers outside the stables in the Royal Mews,” it said, adding that “At no point did the man enter Buckingham Palace or the palace gardens”.

He was arrested for “trespassing on a protected site” and taken into custody at a London police station.

The Royal Mews, housing carriages and stables as well as modern cars, organises the road travel arrangements for King Charles III and members of the royal family.

Intrusions have taken place before at royal premises, including Buckingham Palace.

One of the most famous security breaches was in 1982, when Michael Fagan managed to get into the bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II and spent 10 minutes talking to her before she could raise the alarm.

The unemployed decorator had had a few drinks and climbed up a drainpipe to enter the late queen’s London residence.

He wandered into her bedroom and reportedly sat on the end of the bed for a chat with the perturbed monarch before a palace staffer lured him away with the promise of a shot of whisky.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)