Britain's King Charles III will end his visit to Bermuda by officially launching the UK Space Agency's (UKSA) Project Nova to help track space debris. Charles will visit the site of a new UKSA observatory on the island to hear about the initiative to oversee the installation of a global network of telescopes, across five sites, to help track old satellites, rocket stages, and other objects.
During his final day in Bermuda the king will also open the new Great Bay Coast Guard Station where he will hear about the Royal Bermuda Regiment's Coast Guard's critical work in protecting the island's territorial waters and safeguarding its marine environment. He will view two new pieces of technology being used by the regiment- unmanned underwater vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Young people from the Junior Leader programme will discuss their involvement with the scheme and before leaving the King will award operational service medals to five members of the regiment for their commitment to the protection of the island.
On Friday evening the king attended a garden party and said to guests: "I am told to my amazement it is also the first time in Bermuda's four-hundred-year history that the islands have received a reigning King. "I am terribly sorry it has taken so long!" The event was staged at Government House, where the king has been staying during his three-day visit and which has been refurbished so recently he told guests that it still smells of fresh paint. Raising a toast to Bermuda at the garden party, the king said: "I need hardly say that Bermuda, like all the Overseas Territories, is a most cherished and important member of the British family - with a friendship as solid as this so-called 'Rock'."
King Charles III spent a day in the British island territory of Bermuda after a high-stakes visit to the United States where he sought to heal strained ties between Washington and London. It was the first visit by a British king to Bermuda in its 400-year history, Charles said — a history that involved making the archipelago a maritime hub of Britain's transatlantic slave trade, which the monarchy has been pressured to address.
The king toured a museum exhibit on the slave trade and watched a dance with roots in the era. Charles was visiting the archipelago without Queen Camilla, who had accompanied him to the United States. Early in the day the British monarch greeted a line of schoolchildren, pausing to chat with them, on the steps of the whitewashed St Peter's Church in St George's, the Atlantic Ocean territory's first English settlement.
One well-wisher wore a plastic crown speckled with imitation jewels as she filmed the gathering on her cell phone after a 21-gun salute.
Charles received a Royal Salute and the Royal Bermuda Regiment's band played the national anthem before setting a more relaxed tone with Bob Marley and the Wailers' song "Jamming."
In Sandys Parish, the royal party was treated to a performance by Gombeys — dancers who maintain a folklore tradition with African, Caribbean and Native American influences. Their vibrant costumes evolved from the era of slavery, when performances were restricted and painted masks helped conceal dancers' identities. Charles also visited Trunk Island, an island in Bermuda's Harrington Sound where the local zoological society runs education programmes.
Long a vocal conservationist, Charles appeared "right at home" on the island, Bermuda Zoological Society spokeswoman Robyn Bardgett told AFP, adding it was clear his passion for the environment was "completely genuine." Charles asked a society staff member "are you getting the message through?" The king took "real time to chat with them about what (members) are learning about coral reefs," Bardgett added. — AFP
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