King Charles says he has greater understanding of 'horrors' of slavery, falls short of apology

King Charles III told the heads of 56 Commonwealth countries on Tuesday that he has a greater understanding of the horrors of slavery, calling it a "shameful chapter of history". This comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was open to the United Kingdom apologising for the transatlantic slave trade.


Issued on: 03/11/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

A protester calls for reparations from Britain as King Charles III attends the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, on November 3, 2026. © Matias Delacroix, AP


King Charles told Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday that his greater understanding of the horrors of slavery had made him more determined to address past wrongs, but they ​needed to look ‌to the future and ensure "evil need not have the last word".

The run ⁠up to the gathering of the 56 member states, which comprise mostly former British colonies, has been dominated by talk of whether Britain should ‌apologise or pay reparations for the role it played in the transatlantic slave trade.

READ MOREKing Charles confronts calls for slavery apology during Caribbean tour

While ⁠neither the king nor Britain has so far given such an apology or discussed paying reparations, both Charles and new prime minister Andy Burnham have talked of using the Commonwealth to ​address modern needs, by providing support on climate change, education and health.


Burnham has ‌also gone further than other prime ministers by saying he was open to Britain apologising for slavery and officials were holding talks with national leaders at the summit in Antigua and Barbuda to discuss what form that could ‌take.

"We cannot change the actions of those who came before us," Charles, the head of the Commonwealth, told leaders in his opening speech. "We can, ​however, learn from the past.

"The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth. As I have said before, that shameful chapter of history ​is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow."

Charles ​said the more he had "furthered my own understanding of the issues, through ​listening, learning and looking", the more committed he had become to finding ways for the different countries to build modern partnerships that can address the wrongs ​of the past.

He listed access to education, jobs and opportunities, as well as intra-Commonwealth trade and climate change resilience as ways of helping those "who struggle against hardship and disadvantage".

Burnham has also said he would like to discuss debt resets for smaller Commonwealth nations and has announced a £40 million ($54 million) investment into critical infrastructure in ⁠the Caribbean over the next three years.

"For, as any sailor navigating the seas knows, we cannot command the winds, least of ⁠all where the ​winds of yesterday have delivered us – but we can choose how we set our sail," Charles said.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

scispacehttps://scispace.com  › pdf  › eric-williams-and-capitalism-and-slavery-a-biographical-and-40wsaayoqj.pdf

Richard B. Sheridan Eric Williams and Capitalism and Slavery: A

Third Worlds. have reacted to Capitalism and Slavery. More atten- tion will be given to the reactions of...

cambridgehttps://www.cambridge.org  › core  › books  › abs  › british-capitalism-and-caribbean-slavery  › british-capitalism-and-caribbean-slavery-the-legacy-of-eric-williams-an-introduction  › F86620309A5C17BF3F26DAA1CD436EF4

British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams: An Introduction - British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery

Eric Williams, in Capitalism and Slavery, presented four important themes: (1) slavery was an economic phenomenon; and thus racism was a...

arxiujosepserradellhttps://arxiujosepserradell.cat  › wp-content  › uploads  › 2025  › 11  › Slavery_Capitalism_and_the_Industrial_Revolution_Maxine_Berg_Pat-1.pdf

SLAVERY, CAPITALISM AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson

Americas rather than as a vital element of Britain’s history. In Capitalism · and Slavery (1944), the Trinidadian scholar Eric Williams stood alone

mronlinehttps://mronline.org  › wp-content  › uploads  › 2020  › 10  › his-117-essay_1_documents.pdf

from Capitalism and Slavery [19441

You are seeing this because the administrator of this website has set up Anubis to protect the server against the scourge of AI companies aggressively...

royalhistsochttps://royalhistsoc.org  › eric-williams-capitalism-and-slavery  › 

Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery: debates, legacies and new directions for research | RHS

First published in the UK by André Deutsch in 1964, Williams’ classic text — ‘perhaps the most influential book written in the twentieth century on...

gla.achttps://eprints.gla.ac.uk  › 325342  › 1  › 325342.pdf

Historiographical afterlives of Capitalism and Slavery ( ...

Williams, E. (1944). Capitalism and slavery. The University of North Carolina Press. Williams, E. (1964). British historians and the West Indies. PNM...

cambridgehttps://www.cambridge.org  › core  › books  › abs  › british-capitalism-and-caribbean-slavery  › british-capitalism-and-caribbean-slavery-the-legacy-of-eric-williams-an-introduction  › F86620309A5C17BF3F26DAA1CD436EF4

British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams: An Introduction - British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery

Eric Williams, in Capitalism and Slavery, presented four important themes: (1) slavery was an economic phenomenon; and thus racism was a...

arxiujosepserradellhttps://arxiujosepserradell.cat  › wp-content  › uploads  › 2025  › 11  › Slavery_Capitalism_and_the_Industrial_Revolution_Maxine_Berg_Pat-1.pdf

SLAVERY, CAPITALISM AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson

Americas rather than as a vital element of Britain’s history. In Capitalism · and Slavery (1944), the Trinidadian scholar Eric Williams stood alone

mronlinehttps://mronline.org  › wp-content  › uploads  › 2020  › 10  › his-117-essay_1_documents.pdf

from Capitalism and Slavery [19441

You are seeing this because the administrator of this website has set up Anubis to protect the server against the scourge of AI companies aggressively...

royalhistsochttps://royalhistsoc.org  › eric-williams-capitalism-and-slavery  › 

Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery: debates, legacies and new directions for research | RHS

First published in the UK by André Deutsch in 1964, Williams’ classic text — ‘perhaps the most influential book written in the twentieth century on...

gla.achttps://eprints.gla.ac.uk  › 325342  › 1  › 325342.pdf

Historiographical afterlives of Capitalism and Slavery ( ...

Williams, E. (1944). Capitalism and slavery. The University of North Carolina Press. Williams, E. (1964). British historians and the West Indies. PNM...

ANALYSIS

Ukraine and Russia are taking the war underground as drones saturate the battlefield

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week heralded the success of Operation Veles, during which Kyiv sent troops deep into a disused gas pipeline in the Kupiansk region to confront Russian troops. These underground tactics, which Russian forces have been using for more than two years to slip past Ukrainian lines, are giving Kyiv a new strategy on the battlefield.


Issued on: 03/11/2026 

FRANCE24
By: Sébastian SEIBT

Images taken from a video published by Ukraine showing Operation Veles

 in a gas pipeline in Kupiansk region. © France Médias Monde Graphic Studio


After years of fighting raged across the fields and forests of Ukraine and up into the skies above them, a new front has opened up in the war: beneath the earth. The Ukrainian army has now taken the fight to the Russians in the network of disused underground gas pipelines and tunnels around the town of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s east, the New York Times reported at the end of October.

For almost two weeks, the Ukrainian army has been showing Western media outlets the grim reality of its efforts to seize control of a gas pipeline that passes beneath the Oskil River and into this frontline city that the Russians have been fighting to capture.

Kyiv in October launched Operation Veles, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week described as a “great success”. Throughout the campaign, specially trained and equipped Ukrainian soldiers advanced 15 kilometres along a gas pipeline with a diameter of just 1.2 meters to secure the tunnel’s entry.

The president said that troops had also managed to “eliminate” around a hundred Russian soldiers and take more than 30 more prisoners during the fierce fighting that raged unseen in this underground battlefield.

Huseyn Aliyev, a specialist on the war in Ukraine at the University of Glasgow, said that the operation marked Ukraine’s adoption of tactics long practiced by Moscow.

“It is becoming very widespread, but it's not a new thing – Russians were the ones who started using it,” he said. “This is the first time I know when Ukrainians have started using the same methods.”
A winning tactic

While Ukraine was not the first side to take the fight into the industrial pipelines criss-crossing much of the country, Zelensky said that Kyiv had now made it their own.

“Ukrainian warriors have successfully transformed this tactic, modernised it, and made it much more sophisticated and technologically advanced," he said.

Will Kingston-Cox, a specialist in Russia and the Ukraine war at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona, said that Moscow had previously used these tunnels to slip past Ukraine’s defences.

“One early example that I was thinking about was Avdiivka in January of 2024, where we saw Russian troops reaching the rear of the Ukrainian fortified position through what appears to have been a drainage conduit,” he said.

The Russian army has subsequently used this new tactic to retake Kursk from Ukrainian control, then in the Kupiansk region, where Ukrainians soldiers fought them for each foot of the pipeline tunneling through the earth.

Ryhor Nizhnikau, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said that these tactics were only made possible by the network of Soviet-era gas pipelines and other tunnels that once brought Russian natural gas across Ukraine into Europe.

“This is a new battlefield, but it’s much smaller in scale,” he said. “You can only operate in the network of pipelines that exists. But the fact is that we do see this network being used much more intensively over the past year.”
The map and the territory

Nizhnikau said that these underground networks were also found in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as well as in parts of Zaporizhzhia.

Gustav Gressel, a military analyst at Austria’s National Defence Academy, said that sewage and drainage pipes could also serve the same purpose in Ukraine’s cities.

“In urban conglomerations, the wastewater system becomes another battlefield,” he said.

Largely built when eastern Ukraine was one of the industrial heartlands of the Soviet Union, these networks of pipelines are no secret to military planners in Kyiv and Moscow.

“Everyone knows how these pipelines were built in Soviet times,” Nizhnikau said. “So you have the map, and the Russians have the map.”

Cover image: SPOTLIGHT © FRANCE 24
10:00

Aliyev said that Ukrainian forces had initially tried to wait for Russian soldiers to surface from the tunnels in a grim game of whack-a-mole rather than take the fight underground.

“For a very long time they were actually making fun of Russians using pipelines, saying that it is so dangerous, so ineffective, and it never works,” he said.

But the Russian victories in Avdiivka and Kursk forced Kyiv to reconsider. In September 2025, Russian independent investigative media outlet iStories hammered the point home further, revealing how Moscow was stockpiling ammunition and supplies to use the gas pipeline in the Kupiansk region for a larger-scale offensive.
Out of sight

Kingston-Cox said that the new underground front gave both sides ways to launch attacks and counter-attacks at a time where the mass proliferation of drones made above-ground assaults fraught.

“On open ground, a group can obviously be spotted well before it reaches its objective,” he said. “And we've seen countless cases where this has been the case with ... reconnaissance drones and also attack drones."

Nizhnikau said that the constant threat of drones for tens of kilometres on either side of the front made even the narrow, potentially gas-choked tunnels a more compelling prospect.

“It's more predictable for people. I understand it's really horrible, but then, it’s better than being killed by a drone,” he said. “At least a foot soldier knows that his enemy is just ahead of him in the tunnel – and there is nothing coming from the skies when you don’t expect it.”

‘Not an isolated incident’: Russian drones stalk Ukraine’s civilians in ‘human safaris’

While potentially perilous, Gressel stressed that the tunnels afforded soldiers rare protection from the drones that had become responsible for the bulk of the human casualties of the four-year war.

“Radio-controlled drones lose their signal at the entrance, and for fiber-optic drones the cable often snags in corners,” he said. “Nets, small wire or fishing lines can be spun around the entrance to prematurely detonate a drone.”

But while the saturation of reconnaissance and attack drones was driving both sides to invest more into the fight for the tunnels criss-crossing Ukraine, Nizhnikau stressed that these tactics should be understood as “a support measure” to the broader fight.

Aliyez agreed that this kind of tunnel warfare could not be replicated across the whole front.

“In a lot of places along the front line, there's just no such infrastructure to use in the first place,” he said.

The claustrophobic nature of these pipelines also makes it near impossible to use them to launch larger-scale offensives.

“A narrow pipe, for example, can deliver infantry past an obstacle – but then it would also have very limited capacity to support a larger force under pressure,” Kingston-Cox said. “If the defender is watching the opening and people are coming out a few at a time, this could become extremely vulnerable."

Despite its limitations, he said, these high-risk tactics could be used to help “break local deadlocks”.

And until now, these disused pipelines have largely been used by Russian forces to push deeper into Ukraine. Through operations such as Veles, the Ukrainians are showing that they’re ready to take the fight to Moscow on any battlefield.

This article has been adapted from the original in French.

Star Wars: Has Russia's war with Ukraine gone intergalactic?

Russian made an unprecedented combative move this month as one of its military satellites, the Cosmos-2612, encroached upon the orbit of Ukrainian commercial satellite, Iceye-X36, in behaviour deemed "threatening" by the US State Department. Norbert Pouzin, an orbital analyst at French space tech firm, Aldoria, described the mercenary manoeuvre as the first of its kind.


Issued on: 30/10/2026 
The FRANCE 24 Observers/Quang Pham

Between October 15 and 18, 2026, the Russian satellite Cosmos-2612 positioned itself at a short distance from the commercial satellite Iceye-X36. The number "59103" is the identifier assigned to Iceye-X36 by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). © KeepTrack.space


Has space become a new frontier in Russia's war with Ukraine?

Russian military satellite Cosmos-2612 carried out a manoeuvre between October 15 and 18 that brought it “dangerously close” to Ukrainian commercial satellite, Iceye-X36. The move was described by US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security as "threatening".

Operated by Finnish company Iceye, Iceye-X36 is a Finnish-American civilian satellite equipped with Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) to provide satellite images to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The US State Department said Russia's tactic was consistent with “in-orbit military operations”.

Analysts specialising in space surveillance have been following Cosmos-2612 since its launch in April.

"Cosmos-2612 was one of six satellites launched in total. It was immediately apparent that this wasn't a classic deployment. As soon as they took off, the satellites started changing orbit to pursue Iceye satellites,” said Norbert Pouzin, an orbital analyst at Aldoria, a French space surveillance firm.

Cosmos-2612 took off on April 6, 2026 alongside Cosmos-2609, Cosmos-2610, Cosmos-2611, Cosmos-2613 and Cosmos-2614. KeepTrack, a site specialising in satellite navigation, enables viewers to track their paths.

This map shows the orbit carried out by Cosmos-2612 (identified by its Norad number 68762 in the screengrab) and other Cosmos satellites launched at the same time. © KeepTrack.space

Orbit re-routing – as has been the case of the Cosmos satellites – is a move that consumes a lot of fuel. It’s also the first step in approaching another satellite, Pouzin explains:

"If two satellites are travelling in the same orbit, then they don’t need as much fuel to approach one another. Changing directions in space uses a lot of fuel. But once in the same orbit as another satellite, you’ve already executed the most costly move fuel-wise, if you then want to carry out an approach.”
From a kilometre to within just a few hundred metres

As the imaging data via site, Satellite Tracker, corroborates, Cosmos-2612 diverted from its original position – around 400-500 km from Iceye-X36 – to get closer to the Finnish-American satellite.

"On October 15, Cosmos-2612 was within 5 kilometres of Iceye-X36. Its position continued to narrow in on the satellite on October 16 and 17, before finally getting to within a few hundred metres and a kilometre of Iceye-X36 ,” Pouzin said.

This chat shows the Cosmos-2612’s altitude (68762, shown in red) and Iceye-X36 (59103, shown in blue). You can see that Cosmos-2612 changed its position, moving to an altitude similar to Iceye-X36. © Satellite Tracker

Satellite imaging company Vantor published a photo of the two satellites on October 22, depicting their orbits withing just 1.02 kilometres of one another.
This photo of COSMOS-2612 and ICEYE-X36 was taken on October 17, 2026. Source: Vantor.

Data from KeepTrack also revealed that Cosmos-2612 and Iceye-X36 later embarked on the same orbit, meaning the Russian satellite was “following” the Finnish-American satellite.

Above is a map showing the positions of Cosmos-2612 (number Norad 68762 ) and Iceye-X36 (number Norad 59103). Below is a 3D view of a trajectory of the two satellites © KeepTrack.space

A bold move

So why did Cosmos-2612 carry out this “threatening” manoeuvre?

Given the lack of debris, it doesn’t appear that Iceye-X36 was the target of a “kinetic” attack – that is, a physical strike involving a collision or the launch of a projectile. But according to Pouzin, the manoeuvre by Cosmos-2612 could be interpreted as a form of exerting pressure on Ukraine, as it is the direct recipient of the data gathered by the Iceye satellite:


"SAR satellites have unique observation plans [Editor’s note: a schedule that coordinates how radar satellites can scan specific parts of the planet.] If an operator knows about these, then he could – for a short time – disrupt the satellite’s mission, potentially causing repercussions for ground-based or maritime operations, for example."

Cosmos-2612’s move seemed to shock Western commentators, he added:


"While Russia regularly launches military satellites in the same orbital planes as classified American military satellites; carrying out this particular kind of approach on a commercial satellite while in a low orbit is something new. Furthermore it seemed to be non-cooperative in nature: we are dealing with two actors who are not on the same side and these are satellites not operated by the same entity."

The initiative also revealed something about Russia’s capabilities, Pouzin concluded:


"The move demonstrated a certain agility by the Russian operator, a skilled knowledge of the space domain, and a very high level of mastery in this type of navigation.”

Ocean liner to be sunk off Florida coast to create reef, dive site

04.11.2026

Photo: Bob Karp/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An ocean liner that made the world record for the fastest trans-Atlantic passage is set to become a reef and dive site off Florida's western coast.

The SS United States, celebrated for her speed, strength and craftsmanship, was built to be both a luxury liner and potential military vessel.

Now the 300-metre liner is to be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, some 22 nautical miles south of the town of Destin later this month.

That will create the world's largest man-made reef, according to Okaloosa County officials.

That would be the second record for the steamer, which set a record on its maiden voyage in 1952, crossing the Atlantic in a record three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes from New York to Southampton, England. It travelled at an average speed of just under 66 km/h, or 36 knots, establishing a record which still stands today.

It was taken out of service just 17 years later, in 1969. Plans for its restoration repeatedly foundered due to high costs. Okaloosa County bought the ship in 2024.

Weather permitting, the vessel is to be sunk on November 12. The county is preparing to share further details and a link nearer the time to enable people to watch the deployment via livestream.

The liner will then become a habitat for marine life, attracting divers from all over the world and boosting local tourism. A museum dedicated to the ship is planned on land.

Other vessels around the world have also been sunk deliberately to serve as reefs. Dozens can be found off the coast of Florida alone, including former aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which has lain on the seabed south of Pensacola since 2006.

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Mood much improved in German car industry, experts say

04.11.2026

Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa

The mood in Germany's car industry improved sharply in October despite recent bad news in the sector, according to experts at the ifo economic institute.

The ifo business climate index for the sector rose from minus 33.2 to minus 4.1 points, its highest level since mid-2024. 

Expectations also improved. Those seeing the future situation negatively still outweighed optimists, although by far less than recently.

"The automotive industry is still not out of the woods, as the sharp monthly fluctuations in the business climate indicate a very high level of uncertainty in the sector," said ifo industry expert Anita Wölfl.

Wölfl said one reason for the better figures could be the agreement between France and Germany on a joint automotive strategy. She sees it, however, as only a brief respite for the industry.

"The agreement gives the automotive industry a certain window of opportunity," said Wölfl, adding however that "it does nothing to alter its central challenge to catch up to the leaders again in the technology race."

Poor results from Germany's biggest manufacturer Volkswagen and job cuts at supplier Schaeffler were among the recent blows to the industry.  

The results of the US midterm elections on Tuesday - in which Democrats took control of Congress - did not play a role in the survey, which took place in October.

• ifo press release

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Car manufacturers ‘responding to call’ for more physical controls

03.11.2026

Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

By Jack Evans, PA Motoring Reporter

Car manufacturers are introducing more physical controls after criticism from consumers about screen-heavy designs.

That’s according to Euro NCAP, which has noticed in its latest round of safety testing that more cars are keeping things simple with a greater number of buttons.

Three new cars assessed by safety experts under Euro NCAP’s latest protocols – the Audi Q7, Kia EV2 and Xpeng X9 – show the differences in approach by manufacturers.

Euro NCAP says that while the Q7 has got ‘simple, intuitive and ultimately safe’ controls, the X9 ‘relies too heavily on touchscreen technology’.

Euro NCAP’s testing procedures require ‘key driving controls’ such as indicators, hazard warning lights and wipers to be operated via a physical input or control rather than operated via touchscreen.

Volkswagen Group has faced criticism for its lack of buttons and appears to be addressing this, with the Q7 scoring 90% for driving controls thanks to buttons and stalks athat are’ clearly visible and ergonomically sited’, according to Euro NCAP.

Dr. Aled Williams, programme director, Euro NCAP, said: Euro NCAP is continually monitoring market trends, and the move toward placing as many driving controls within a car’s touchscreen system is one that has concerned us just as much as it has annoyed consumers.

“It is clear in these results that the Xpeng adheres to the mantra that everything must be included in the touch screen, despite overwhelmingly negative feedback by European car buyers.”

Euro NCAP says that its latest round of testing has shown ‘clear differences’ between cars made by European manufacturers and Chinese carmakers, with the exception of Geely’s EX2. Cars like the BMW iX3 have recently scored 100% for driving controls, whereas the Leapmotor B05 has fallen behind in this area with a score of 0%.

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH