- Microsoft pushes for gaming supremacy with 'Call of Duty' release
- Putin to meet UN's Guterres for first time in over two years
- At US border, frustration over immigration as political football
- Harris leans on A-list, Trump on quirky coterie in homestretch
- Michigan's Mideast minority tempted to punish Harris in US vote
- Dodgers idol Ohtani eyes World Series coronation
- Goliath v Goliath: Yankees, Dodgers clash in World Series classic
- Pakistan aims to privatize flag carrier in November: Finance Minister
- Trump accused of groping model he met through Jeffrey Epstein
- Original 'Little Prince' typescript to go under hammer in UAE
- Messi and Miami have sights set on MLS Cup playoff triumph
- King Charles sips kava narcotic, to become Samoan 'high chief'
- Tesla shares jump as profits rise on lower expenses
- Trump boasts of near daily conversations with Netanyahu
- 'Too soon' to call Barca contenders despite Bayern romp: Flick
- Over 250 Uruguayan football fans arrested after Rio riot
- COP16 president hopeful of 'major announcements' soon
- Israel pounds Beirut, levels residential complex: state media
- Liverpool driven on by 'destroyed' season
- Barca thrash Bayern in Champions League, Liverpool stay perfect
- 'Freak' Haaland leaves Man City team-mates 'speechless'
- COP16 'green zone' celebrates nature's bounty
- Perplexity seeks news allies as it challenges Google
- Ten Hag argues Man Utd on the 'right path' to success
- Pay or 'blood flows': Peru battles extortion epidemic
- Raphinha hat-trick helps Barca thrash Bayern in Champions League
- Liverpool sink Leipzig to continue strong start under Slot
- Haaland acrobatics light up Man City rout of Sparta Prague
- Global business web behind Malaysia's 'houses of horror' youth homes
- Chair of global plastics talks pledges deal next month
- French mass rape victim tells court she is 'broken' but determined
- Lebanon media says Israel strikes Beirut suburbs, office of pro-Iran broadcaster
- Embiid, George out for 76ers' NBA season opener
- G7 to make $50 bn Ukraine loan available by year-end: Yellen
- US fines Apple and Goldman Sachs over Apple Card
- Over 350 green activists killed since 2018 in nature summit host Colombia: report
- Harris berates 'unhinged' Trump over Hitler remarks
- Proportion of women killed in conflict doubled in 2023: UN
- US businesses 'hesitant' before 2024 elections: Federal Reserve
- Leverkusen held to stalemate in Champions League by battling Brest
- Frustrated Atalanta held to goalless draw by Celtic in Champions League
- Djokovic won't play Paris Masters, leaving doubt over season
- Bolivian transport workers strike over fuel shortages
- Fury expects to knock out Usyk in heavyweight title rematch
- Georgia ruling party stages mass rally ahead of key vote
- Attack kills 4, injures 14 at Turkey defence firm
- Another French top pick: Zaccharie Risacher starts life in the NBA
- EU chief starts Balkans tour, says enlargement 'top priority'
- Destitute Gazans cold 'every night' as winter approaches
- Asalanka stars as Sri Lanka defeat West Indies in second ODI, clinch series
RYCEF | -0.96% | 7.29 | $ | |
SCS | -2.73% | 12.47 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.39% | 24.64 | $ | |
RBGPF | 1.59% | 63 | $ | |
NGG | 0.23% | 66.44 | $ | |
RELX | -0.43% | 46.82 | $ | |
GSK | -0.05% | 37.98 | $ | |
BTI | -0.52% | 34.71 | $ | |
RIO | -1.54% | 64.49 | $ | |
BP | -0.86% | 31.31 | $ | |
BCE | -0.33% | 33.21 | $ | |
BCC | 0.19% | 133.91 | $ | |
VOD | -0.95% | 9.46 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.69% | 24.76 | $ | |
JRI | -0.15% | 13.05 | $ | |
AZN | -0.48% | 76.95 | $ |
King Charles sips kava narcotic, to become Samoan 'high chief'
King Charles III took part in a traditional kava-drinking ceremony before a line of bare-chested and heavily tattooed Samoans Thursday, as he readied to be made a "high chief" of this Pacific island paradise.
The British monarch is on an 11-day tour of his Australian and Samoan realms -- the first major foreign trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
Wearing a cream safari-style suit, the 75-year-old king sat on a stage at the head of a carved timber longhouse, where he was presented with a polished half-coconut filled with the mildly narcotic brew.
The peppery, slightly intoxicating root drink is a key part of Pacific culture and is known locally as "ava".
The ceremony began with a symbolic debate among "talking chiefs" over who would prepare the drink.
The kava roots were paraded around the marquee, and finally prepared by the chief's daughter and filtered through a sieve made of the dried bark of a fau tree.
Once ready, a Samoan man screamed as he decanted the drink, which was finally presented to the king.
Charles uttered the words: "May God Bless this ava" before lifting it to his lips. The ceremony concluded with claps.
Charles' wife, Queen Camilla sat beside him, fanning herself in the stiffling tropical humidity.
- High Chief -
Many Samoans are excited to host the king -- his first-ever visit to the Pacific Island nation that was once a British colony.
Later Thursday, the royal couple will visit the village of Moata'a, where Charles will be made "Tui Taumeasina" or high chief.
The title represents the area where the king will visit and, according to local legend, is where the coconut originated.
"Everyone has taken to our heart and is looking forward to welcoming the king," said Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a local chief who will bestow the title on Charles.
"We feel honoured that he has chosen to be welcomed here in our village. So as a gift, we would like to bestow him a title."
Tamapua added he would raise the issue of climate change with the king and queen and show them the local mangroves.
"The high tides is just chewing away on our reef and where the mangroves are," he told AFP, adding that food sources and communities were being washed away or inundated.
"Our community relies on the mangrove area for mud crab and fishes, but since, the tide has risen over the past 20 years by about two or three metres (up to 118 inches)."
The king is also in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which is taking place in Apia.
- Colonialism and Climate -
The legacy of empire looms large.
Commonwealth leaders will select a new secretary-general nominated from an African country –- in line with regional rotations of the position.
All three likely candidates have called publicly for reparations for slavery and colonialism.
One of the three, Joshua Setipa from Lesotho, told AFP that the resolution could include non-traditional forms of payment: such as climate financing.
"We can find a solution that will begin to address some injustices of the past and put them in the context happening around us today," he said.
Another issue that features heavily on the agenda is climate change, with world leaders to deliberate on an Ocean Declaration to safeguard a healthy and resilient ocean.
Pacific island nations -- once seen as the embodiment of palm-fringed paradise, are now among the most climate-threatened areas of the planet.
F.Cardoso--PC