Reuters World News - The coronation the world is and isn’t celebrating

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

A stone of destiny, a golden carriage and the world’s largest diamond – Britain is putting on the show of the century for King Charles’ coronation. But the British monarchy isn’t celebrated everywhere in the world. We walk the procession route, speak to a Maori indigenous artist and a British republican about what the day means for them and talk to our own correspondents about how they are preparing. Plus the famous guests that won’t be there. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An historic ritual chaired on by millions of excited well-wishes lining London streets. But that was 70 years ago. This is 2023, and King Charles faces a very different realm, smaller and less enamoured with the monarchy. Today, we look at the coronation of Britain's king from different angles, from the indigenous people in former colonies who want to break ties with the crown, To the Windsors, the family at the heart of this institution. It's Friday, May 5th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes.

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your period of per per year on shopify. orgs. First, the headlines. Police in Serbia arrested a gunman suspected of killing

eight people and wounding 14 others in the country's second mass shooting in as many days. The attack comes less than

48 hours, after a 13-year-old boy shot dead nine people at a school in Belgrade. Four members of the proud boys militia group have been convicted of seditious conspiracy over the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, including their former leader, Henri-E Tario. It was never going to be a quiet night. That's Naples, exploding into celebration, after winning the Italian Serie A soccer title for the first time in over three decades. Napoli claimed the crown following a 1-1-drawer at Midtable Udinesse.

Coronation Day in Britain is planned down to the last stray horse's hair. There's even nighttime rehearsals with military bands. I walked part of the route that King Charles will take from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey with photographer Clodagh Kilcoyne. The pomp and pageantry is matched by meticulous preparation by journalists like Clodagh, whose photos will feature around the world. We're outside the golden gates of Buckingham Palace.

When the big event starts, these gates will open. Clodagh, what are we looking for? When these gates open, King Charles' procession will come out from Buckingham Palace, and it will be the largest military ceremonial operation for 70 years. Thousands of sailors, soldiers, aviators participating and the members of the household cavalry, with their shiny silver helmets, long plumes of horsehair

will accompany the king and queen. And in a break with tradition, they'll travel in the Diamond Jubilee coach rather than the older, more uncomfortable state coach. The diamond version was built in 2012 in Australia and it's air-conditioned and has hydraulic suspension. Very nice. A lot more comfortable for the journey he has to make. That journey, he's going to go round where we are here,

around the, this is the Queen Victoria Monument. And when he comes around the corner, I'll be looking for him waving, being overhauled, with the sense of ceremony and generally looking for emotion in his face. And it all happens quite quickly. I mean, I know he's driving slowly, but you don't have a lot of time, right? It's faster than you think, yeah, he'll whiz by, he'll be gone in two or three seconds. So you really don't have much time. So that's your moment. You've got two or three seconds to get your shot.

That's the window. We've made our way to Westminster Abbey, or as close as we can get to it now, because there's a lot of security. Westminster Abbey, where it all happens, this is going to to be a visual spectacle, isn't it? Yeah, it will be amazing inside. The place would be dripping in jewels and gems of... Of all varieties. But it'll be dripping with rubies.

The other thing to look out for during the ceremony will be the stone of destiny. It's an ancient symbol of Scotland's monarchy, which had to be present whenever a monarch was crowned. And it'll be enclosed inside the coronation chair. Not everyone is celebrating. At home and abroad, Britain is grappling with its violent colonial history. Even the sceptre that Charles will hold is a point of controversy.

It studded with the world's largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa. Black South Africans, like Tebogo Mahlalane, would like it back. We want the crown to be brought back to South Africa where it belongs. At least it will restore the dignity of the African child. At least it will restore the self-respect. of the African child. So it's a touch of subject to me. Countries as far and wide as Australia and Jamaica face calls for the removal of the monarch as head of state. In Jamaica, someone reparation for slavery. In Australia, they're replacing

Queen Elizabeth's face on the $5 bill with a design honoring indigenous people, not the new king. I'm Indigenous Māori from New Zealand. The British signed a treaty with our people back in 1840. But celebrating the British monarchy won't sit easy on Saturday with some iwi. That's the word for tribe. I spoke to Māoriara Bailey from Nati Poro Ki Haratonga. He's come up with an unusual way to block out the coronation, a browser plug-in that replaces news about the coronation with indigenous news. Kiyara, hello, hamiura. How's it going? Kiyara, it's going good. Let's start with what inspired you to make this tool, Pikarimae. In Alta Rua, a Māori maker, 1.8% of the kind of media populace.

And so when major events that are linked to, I guess, our history are brought up and within industry, we have to rationalise it and make sense of it while it's happening to us as a people, I wanted to create something that would just bring our father, know, Farni or our people, back to the source and back to the sources of what I believe is just reporting and noble reporting and people who I believe deserve heralding and respect. Is this a conversation that's happening in New Zealand right now about whether we should

still be part of the monarchy? You know, there's a whole lot of work that's happening and conversations that are happening around establishing ourselves as a republic or making moves to ground firmly. in the aspirations of the treaty, if not the constitutions, then at least the aspirations, Māori academics, are imagining what unraveling and seeing through settler colonialism looks like. And we never talk about settler colonialism as a past context. We're always talking about it as the present. And I think we need to get really comfortable in doing that.

And I think a lot of Māori are seeing that now. And I having conversations, you know, at an Iwi level about how we create our own systems and thou shalt own people as iwi or as nations. How do you feel about the royals? Do you think New Zealand should still be part of the monarchy? I don't think New Zealand should ever have been part of the monarchy. Republicanism within the United Kingdom is also on the rise. Graham Smith is head of Republic, a group campaigning for an elected head of state.

They've lost their star player. Support is clearly going down. is going down and that's a big problem for them. He says around a thousand people will join his protest at the coronation. But they'll be vastly outnumbered on the streets by those cheering the occasion. Many of them have camped out for a week to get a glimpse of the king. We are all excited to come and see what is going on to see our first king. Electric, festive, because we've never seen this before.

For 70 years, we haven't. had such show of Britishness. That's why all over the world, right now, the only news is the coronation of the success to Queen Elizabeth II. There will also be some very notable names not in attendance. I asked Michael Holden, who covers all things royal for Reuters, about who's in and who's out. Michael, let's start with the biggest name, Megan Markle.

Yeah, so it is actually coincidental. the coronation happens to fall on the fourth birthday of Prince Archie, their eldest son, so she can stay and give him a party whilst there's a bit of a bigger party in London for Charles. I also saw Fergie is not invited. Yeah, so, I mean, again, that's possibly a bit more surprising, but Prince Andrews is obviously, again, not one of the most favoured members of the royal family at the moment. She was at the Queen's funeral, but she's not been many official royal engagements since, her and Andrew divorced.

Beyond the family, who else will be attending that we should keep an eye out for? There's about 100 heads of state are going to be coming along. US First Lady Jill Biden, she will be there. There's a smattering of sort of well-known faces. Lionel Richie, bizarrely, will be there in a charity role. What is the cost of this coronation? So no figures have been released in advance. It is obviously going to cost millions.

and there's a lot of money to spend when a lot of people are struggling, when you've got a very high inflation. But on the other hand, the government and Bucking Palace say it actually brings a lot of money into the economy as well through tourism and people go out and spend lots of money and things like that. So they think at the end of the day, it would justify its overall cost. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. Whatever you're up to on Saturday, we hope you have a good one. Before you go, please do leave us a rating or review in your podcast app. It helps other listeners to find us. We'll be back on Sunday.