of half—time. the first two weeks of the giro d'italia have not gone the way that chris froome would have hoped for but today he had his first stage win. he had to fight off enthusiastic fans on the difficult ascent of mount tsonga long. £fo! enthusiastic fans on the difficult ascent of mount tsonga long. 2 the enthusiastic fans on the difficult ascent of mount fellow| long. 2 the enthusiastic fans on the difficult ascent of mount fellow| long. and the 55559151; :§ ‘j‘h; §::!!;';;' qhiéftz—h'zfsd . he 55559151; 5.4 45; 45:55:25 91445—4575. . he did race leader simon yates but he did ta ke race leader simon yates but he did take 59? he has moved up to take victory. he has moved up to fifth place overall but remains more than three minutes behind his compatriot. yates extended his lead to almost 1.5 minutes. and that is almost bought from, more throughout the evening. all the headlines shortly but first of all, a time for a look at the weather. a fine end to a perfect day, a few changes on the cards, thickening cloud bringing outbreaks of rainfor thickening cloud bringing outbreaks of rain for the hebrides and that'll bring the odd splash of rain to northern ireland, northern and western scotland. for many, not

quite as chilly as it has been. for many, another fine start to sunday. but we will have big applied across scotla nd but we will have big applied across scotland with more breeze and northern ireland, bringing occasional rain. still drier moments with hazy sunshine. hazy sunshine andi with hazy sunshine. hazy sunshine and i slid in showers to be used to scotla nd and i slid in showers to be used to scotland with temperatures around the moray firth up to 21 but with long spells of sunshine across england and wales once more, even after the misty start, highs of around 23. buying into sunday evening but a translator across the north—west of scotland and northern ireland and that departs westwards once again and into next week it'll be fine many. this is bbc news. our latest headlines... prince harry and meghan markle have been married at a ceremony in st george's chapel, windsor, in a royal wedding that's been watched across the world. the bride arrived at the chapel

with ten pageboys and bridesmaids and wearing a dress by a female british designer. prince charles accompanied meghan markle down the final part of the aisle, while prince harry and her mother looked on. meghan, i give you this ring. as a sign of our marriage. with my body, i honour you. all that i am, i give to you. with the queen and duke of edinburgh watching, the married couple made their way to see the thousands waiting outside the castle grounds. celebrity friends and family were among the 600 people in the chapel, while more than a thousand members of the public were invited into the castle grounds. it's like being in a dream. all day it was like we were walking on air. it's kind of like wow.

it's been a great day, the weather's been lovely. it couldn't have been better. this evening prince harry drove meghan markle in a classic e—type jaguar from windsor castle to a reception for close family and friends at nearby frogmore house. now on bbc news, a special edition of witness introduces us to five important royal moments of the recent past. hello and welcome to witness with me, razia iqbal, here at the british library for a special programme looking at the changing nature of royalty during the 20th century. we will hear about the japanese

royal wedding which broke more than 2000 years of tradition. we will remember the african king who fell in love and lost his throne. we will also hearfrom a european king who lost his crown. and we will find out how princess diana used her position to change social attitudes. but first, russia, and one of the defining moments of the 20th century — the russian revolution and the overthrow of the last tsar. princess 0lga romanoff is the great niece of tsar nicolas ii. she spoke to witness about his death and eventual reburial. newsreader: following the priests and the nobles, tsar nicolas of imperial russia with his wife and children. one day, all to find death in a bullet—swept cellar. my grandmother, kasenia, was nicolas ii sister.

and my father was nicholas ii's eldest nephew. they called him uncle nicky. nicolas adored him and they went on manoeuvres together and did everything together and travelled a lot with the tsar and the tsarina and was very close to the girls, as there was one the same age as him and they used to play together and have rollerblade races and cycle races and pony races up and down the palaces. the russian territories were vast and they were incredibly powerful. also nicholas was the head of the church. already there was bolshevik movements and the russian royal family were not as powerful as they were, say, in 1900. on march 15th 1917, tsar nicholas ii, supreme

ruler of all the russias, was forced to abdicate in the face of political and economic pressure that lead in the end to total revolution. nicolas and his family were taken to tobolsk where they were held and from tobolsk they went to ekaterinburg which is where they were eventually murdered. i think the communists were worried that he might be put on the throne again or at least might have more influence than what they would like him to have. his memory is revered here but during his lifetime, the tsar was accused of being both weak and inconsistent, of stubbornly clinging to power. but the romanoffs are credited with dignity and bravery in the months leading to their execution. the children were 0lga, tatiana, maria and anastasia, and the brother, alexei, along with the empress, alexandra, and nicolas himself, who were all shot. after the fall of the soviet union, we heard on the grapevine

that the bodies of nicholas and family had been discovered in a swamp outside ekaterinburg and there was a movement that they would get a decent burial in st petersburg with the rest of their family. in '98, injuly, one of my sons and myself went to st petersburg for the first time for the funeral of nicholas ii and there were between 52 and 56 romanoffs. as the cortege approaches the winter palace, the historic home of romanoff autocracy, it slows down in keeping with the russian tradition in which the coffins of the dead are driven past the place that was their last home on earth. we all went on a cortege all the way from the airport to peter and paul fortress and what struck me, amazingly, there were so many people in the street.

and all of them were signing the cross and bowing. and then the queen had very kindly sent officers from the scots greys. the honour guard included a piper from the royal scots dragoon guards. tsar nicolas was their commander in chief. there was a very long service. they were all laid out in front of the altar. and it all felt very emotional. it had a feel of holiness and sanctity. it was, you know, it wasjust nice to have them safely buried. princess 0lga romanoff. while the romanoffs ruled russia for over 300 years, the japanese royal family is said to be the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, tracing a direct line back more than 2500 years. but in 1959, the crown prince married for love, meeting his fiancee,

the daughter of a wealthy flour miller, on a tennis court. crown prince akihito has married a commoner, michiko shoda, so breaking japanese tradition of more than 2600 years. the marriage ceremony, lasting only 15 minutes, took place in kashiko—dokoro, a wooden shrine within the walls of the imperial palace. there was no hint of any western influence in the wedding ritual. in sumptuous robes such as members of the imperial family have worn for centuries, the crown prince and his bride were made man and wife. burdened by no fewer than 12 kimonos, it took princess michiko three hours to dress. the total weight was 33 lbs. cheers accompany them all the way as they begin their drive through tokyo. shiegeo suzuki at his home injapan. in the 19505, the marriage between a white woman and an african prince caused uproar. seretse khama was a future

king of botswana. ruth williams was a secretary from britain. both countries opposed the union. seretse was exiled and forced to renounce his throne. ruth's sister, muriel williams sanderson, introduced the couple. i'd never met an african until i went to the london missionary society conference in '46 and i was then 24. i went up to dinner and at the table was seretse khama. seretse was the inheritor as chief of the tribe, like a king. we became very good friends and i used to go up every saturday night. my sister ruth didn't have anything to do on a saturday night so i asked her if she would like to come up with me. we met through my sister and indirectly through the london missionary society. they used to have weekend sort of thing is for african students. they clicked from the word go. you get this attraction, it's impossible to describe but it's just there.

we discovered we liked the same type of music, always jazz. people like ella fitzgerald. it was amazing how they had so much in common with such different backgrounds. in those days, the racial situation in london was not very good. whites and blacks did not go out together, especially a white girl and a black man. we were very much in love. we knew we were going to upset our immediate families but then, at the same time, we didn't want to live apart. i think she was very brave, and so was he. his father had died when he was very young and he was brought up by his uncle, tshekedi. he was very much against the marriage and he thought it would be letting the tribe down and you couldn't have a chief with a white bride. they wanted to be married in the anglican church. unfortunately, tshekedi wrote to the london missionary society asking them to stop the wedding. and they contacted the bishop of london, and he telephoned the vicar the morning

of the marriage to say he wasn't to marry them. so that was the saturday. on monday morning seretse went to a registry office, bought a special licence and then the wednesday morning at nine o'clock they arranged to get married. we were stubborn. other people were equally stubborn in their attitude by trying to prevent us. it was discussed in parliament. churchill said they were a very brave couple, even though he did not approve of the marriage. the british government sent out a team to look at the suitability of seretse to be the chief. coming in from bechuanaland, seretse khama, the 27—year—old chief designate of the bamangwato tribe. he had been summoned to britain to discuss the future rulership of the tribe, affected by his marriage to former london typist ruth williams. they had a lot of protests from south africa. they said, we don't approve

of a coloured couple being in such a prominent position. so the british government exiled seretse even though the committee that went out there couldn't find anything wrong with the marriage. had we not had the aggro it would have been better, but i thinkjust the fact that people were trying to separate us, even after we were married they were still trying to separate us, somebody described it one time as trying to split the atom. it was news all over the world. i just couldn't believe it was me and my family and ruth and that we were living through this. it's six years since the british government forbade seretse to return to his homeland. now he has renounced the chieftaincy for ever and at last the ban is lifted. when seretse was setting up the political party, he travelled all over botswana. one of these times the car broke down so of course ruth had been in the waaf, she had three months training in car maintenance. so she got out and fixed the car. he said, "well, i certainly

married the right woman!" muriel williams sanderson, who died in 2015. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel or you can catch up on all our films along with more than a thousand radio programmes in our online archive. just go to bbc.co.uk/witness. in 1987 the world was in fear of a deadly new disease which seemed to target gay men. news headlines created hysteria which suggested hiv and aids could be picked up from casual contact. but it tookjust one photograph with the world's most famous woman, diana, princess of wales, to change that. john 0'reilly was a nurse at britain's first purpose—built aids ward. for everybody affected by hiv and aids around the world, it was a major coup.

it was amazing. officially the princess was simply opening britain's first purpose—built aids ward but perhaps more significantly she demonstrated to staff and patients her confidence that aids cannot be contracted by casual contact. people were frightened, really frightened, because we didn't really know what it was to begin with. there was a lot of aids—phobia, a lot of homophobia. the media were unkind, particularly the tabloid press. i hated all that kind of misinformation and hysteria. the headlines were scaremongering, ignorant, misleading the general public. as far as i'm concerned, the gay plague was the homophobia, not the virus. i didn't tell anybody what i did, i didn't even tell fellow nurses or doctors what i did. ijust said i was a nurse at the middlesex hospital. we couldn't attract staff because people were frightened.

the unit has created other pressures in the hospital. staff treating people with aids are subject to unusual strain. obviously we have to be careful with blood and body fluids because that's the way that it is transmitted. obviously if we are dealing with those things then we will wear gloves and aprons if necessary but we're not going out of our way to wear space suits and the rest because it is totally unnecessary. my first impressions of princess diana was that she was warm, sophisticated, elegant and smart. and i warmed to her instantly. she took our consultant down a peg or two, who really sort of condescendingly said, you know, do you know what this is, and he was holding up an x—ray of the chest. and she just very politely said, "i'm patron of the british heart and lung foundation, of course i know what an x—ray is." i thought, good on you, i like that. anticipation always surrounds

what the princess of wales will wear for an engagement but it's rarely been keener than yesterday. just one question dominated the whole day — would she or wouldn't she wear gloves? princess diana demonstrated that she cared because she took everybody‘s hand. this was diana, the princess of wales, coming in gloveless and shaking our patients' hands as well as ours. you know, that was very moving. the ward can take 12 patients. today, though, the beds were empty. the patients were hiding from the media, unhappy at the way they have covered the aids epidemic in the past. finally, one did agree to a picture of the prioncess shaking his hand to prove you can't catch aids through casual contact. i don't think it took a lot of convincing for him, because he was dying. for a royal who was allowed to go in and shake a patient‘s hand, somebody at the bus stop or in the supermarket or in

the supermarket could do the same. that really educated people. john 0'reilly. and finally to bulgaria where the monarchy was abolished by communism after the second world war. unlike the russian romanoffs in 1918, this time most of the royal family was spared but were banished from the country. the king at the time, simeon ii, was just nine years old, crowned after the sudden death of his father. half a century later, simeon saxe—coburg—gotha returned to bulgaria to run the country not as king but as prime minister. the monarchy strikes back. after more than 50 years in exile, former king simeon‘s vote was much more than symbolic. i really didn't think we would have such a landslide. it was really quite a surprise. it was also a tremendous

decision, would i live up to it, was i capable. simeon was just a boy when he was crowned king “119113. at the age of six he led a country which was a reluctant ally of nazi germany during the second world war. then in september '44 the soviet troops marched in. there was a coup d'etat, and after that came the period where my uncle and other regents plus a number of other people were executed. we left from this house, as a matter of fact, from this door. we boarded a so—called royal train and what worried my mother was that they noticed that there were russian soldiers. they suddenly thought of the very worst, that we would be taken somewhere and done in, but it didn't happen, obviously, since i can answer your questions here today. we never thought that this

would last 50 years. suddenly, the way west was opened. this did not look like a planned move from the communist authorities but rather another panic response by a government giving way to the parliament of the streets. watching the news of the fall of the wall, literally this is where i started thinking, well, there might be a chance that eventually we will see bulgaria again. simeon returned from exile to huge crowds in 1996. from one part of the road to the centre was literally a sea of people. most bulgarians think a decade of democracy after the fall of communism has given them far too little reward. now the ex—king must decide how to lead his people again. i self—demoted myself to be prime minister rather than stay

with the hypothetical title of king to be able to be more useful. to me, it was something which was against everything i had been taught over the years, that the king would not meddle in direct politics so that was one thing that cost me personally a lot of sleepless nights. to my father's generation, for centuries people have only married within these families. my generation, people started marrying persons who were out of the royal families but this in itself showed the monarchy is not something stale, stuck back in history. my view is, having worn both hats, i could not say that there is one single system which is the best,

but certainly monarchy is something much more flexible. the politician, which i have been, works with sort of four years term or five years term. the king is actually with a generation. so you think with 25 years ahead roughly. i think the more people get a little bit upset with their politicians, the more monarchy has a function. i think it's a pretty fair system. i'm not doing publicity of my own trade but i really think it. simeon saxe—coburg—gotha, formally king simeon ii, speaking to witness from the vrana palace in bulgaria. that's all from this special edition of witness here at the british library. we will be back again next month with more extraordinary moments in history and the remarkable people who witnessed them. for now, from me and the entire

witness team, goodbye. good evening. the weather played a starring role across the country today and i'm sure that was many a bride and groom up another country countries enjoyed skies like this. and under the sunny skies, strong sunshine and it would have felt warmer than it was, temperatures reaching 22 degrees. thankfully the rain clouds are still to the west but they are starting to creep in towards the far north and west of scotla nd towards the far north and west of scotland and the far west of northern ireland. tonight it will

turn a bit wetter at times there, and a bit windy but away from that, some mist and low cloud developing from the north sea pushing inland across east anglia and the south—east but in between, clearer skies, a little cooler but not as cold as it has been, down to about three orfour celsius. a mile that start in western scotland and northern ireland but more cloud than today so some rain. the odd heavy burst, particularly into the highlands and hebrides but still some drier moments and some hazy sunshine in eastern scotland. further south, the morning cloud will break up, it will go back to the coast, could be a bit misty at times but inland, like winds, strong sunshine and template is up to about 23 degrees. some more breed in the irish sea and scotland and northern ireland, some rain but not a wash—out. the most frequent rain in the highlands and hebrides and occasionally 0rkney and shetland 's,

but only a small chance of a shower and there could be highs of around 21. on sunday night we will see the rain pepping up again in northern ireland and northern and western scotla nd ireland and northern and western scotland because of this weather front. high pressure still in the south and east, but low pressure in iberia will edge to us and have an impact later. for the time being a wet start in the north—west of scotland, the west of northern ireland but the rain moves back into the atlantic through the day although it will stay wet in the hebrides. another long sunny day for most other parts, but as the low pressure develops in iberia, we could see some isolated showers or thunderstorms developing in the south and east. isolated and that will be the case for the rest of the week but for many, a trite week ahead and when the sun is out it will feel pleasantly warm. goodbye for now. —— dry week. this is world news today. i'm ben bland. our top stories... the kiss that says we're

husband and wife — britain's prince harry marries his american fiancee, meghan markle. the bride was accompanied by ten bridesmaids and pageboys in a ceremony watched by millions around the world. all that i am i give to you. harry and his new wife meghan left windsor castle in a vintage sports car for their evening reception. in other news... investigators in cuba recover a black box recorder from friday's plane crash that killed more than 100 people.