this is bbc news. the headlines... millions of people across the uk are taking part in community events to mark the final day of king charles�* coronation. but there's been controversy too... london's metropolitan police faces growing criticism over its detention of dozens of anti—monarchy protesters. sudan's warring military factions are holding talks that many hope will bring about a ceasefire to allow aid in. the prime minister of the caribbean nation of st kitts and nevis has

told the bbc his country will not be totally free as long as king charles iii remains head of state. dr terrance drew said he would welcome an apology from the monarchy for its historic role in the slave trade. there are 1a commonwealth realms —— or countries where the king remains head of state. eight are in the caribbean, where questions linger over the crown's role in the slave trade, and whether or not to become republics. our correspondent celestina olulode reports. the shifting tides of constitutional change. this tiny island is reconsidering its relationship with the crown. the prime minister of st kitts and nevis says he wants to give people a say on who their head of state should be. the head of state still resides in the monarchy of england. and so that aspect of it is telling us that we are not totally free yet. that consultation or discussion will start sometime during my leadership.

the prime minister is also calling for an apology for the monarchy�*s historic role in the slave trade. i think that acknowledging that somthing would have gone wrong, something wrong was done, that acknowledging it, and apologising for it, is a step in the right direction. buckingham palace says slavery is an issue the king takes profoundly seriously. last month, the palace said it was supporting independent research into the royal family's historic links to the slave trade and on the matter of countries becoming republics, king charles has said it is a matter for each nation to decide. britain's influence remains strong here, even after almost a0 years of independence. but as this nation reaches that milestone, there is ongoing debate around its identity. we still have the same colonialistic thinking, and that is one thing we have to move away from.

that is why i think becoming a republic would just benefit our people more. for us to be so small to go to such a big step would be impressionable onto the world, i would say. but a recent poll suggests the country is still split on whether becoming a republic is a good idea. if there is one place that illustrates st kitts and nevis colonial past, it is brimstone hill fortress, the site of several royal visits, including the then prince charles in 2019. the entire structure was built by enslaved africans. they are the ones who harvested the stone, and cut them into shape. historian leonard stapleton showed the king around the island. we recognise that the people that fill the office of the monarchy, they are in person kind and genuine human beings, but the office do

represent the same force that was behind the enslavement of the africans. as the country strides forward, questions linger and reaching an agreement regarding any next steps appears to be a long way off. our correspondent who's been working on the story, celestina olulode. tell us a little bit more about the appetite of other countries to become a republic?— appetite of other countries to become a republic? well, we have heard today _ become a republic? well, we have heard today of _ become a republic? well, we have heard today of the _ become a republic? well, we have heard today of the prime - become a republic? well, we have heard today of the prime ministerl become a republic? well, we have i heard today of the prime minister of st vincent and the grenadines and he impressed upon me, he said that it was very important for his nation to transition to a republic. when i asked him why, here is a bit more about why he said becoming a republic was so important. mac this fiction must come to an end. it is

an absurdity and it offends people in a psychological way. in 1979, we quote unquote, became independent. what actually happened ? we reclaimed our independence, but that reclamation is incomplete until this aspect is addressed. and in recent days we have heard from the government ofjamaica who said that they in turn intend to speed up their transition to republic. and as well, there are other countries like grenada and antigua that have also expressed a desire to transition to republic. the key thing though, is that each nascent has to take their own steps, partly because of the eight remaining caribbean realms, only one would not need a referendum. what is

interesting is that st kitts and nevis, they would not require a majority referendum. they would rather require a simple majority referendum. but st vincent and the grenadines would need to third. and backin grenadines would need to third. and back in 2009, that didn't happen. there was only 45% of the people that voted in favour of the republic. and when i interviewed prime minister gonzalez today. he said to me that, look, he's not sure if this transition will happen in his lifetime, though he hoped so. let's just talk about this issue of reparations. reparations to be paid. yeah, so you may remember last year when there was a number of royal towards that took place in the caribbean countries like jamaica, the bahamas. and there as well as people, a number of people there were cheering, were greeting the

royal family. were cheering, were greeting the royalfamily. but were cheering, were greeting the royal family. but there were also people protesting, holding up placards calling for reparations. the prime minister of st kitts and nevis, as you heard, he said that he would welcome an apology from king charles and acknowledgement that wrong was done during the slave trade. today, when i spoke to prime minister gonzalez of st vincent and the grenadines, he upheld that. however, he said that he believes that king charles is already taking positive steps. but, he did criticise prime minister rishi sunak, who last month he said that he would not apologise for the uk's historic role in the slave trade. again, just briefly, what is the response been in buckingham palace? so two things. 0n reparations and the slavery, buckingham palace told us in a statement that it takes the

issue of slavery profoundly seriously. and it said as well, we know that recently, the king has said that he cannot describe his personal, his depths of personal sorrow of suffering caused by the slave trade. and we know that last month, king charles said that he was cooperating. the end dependent study thatis cooperating. the end dependent study that is taking place roots exploring the relationship between the monarchy and the slave trade in the 17th and 18th century. and on the question of transitioning to the public, buckingham palace said that thatis public, buckingham palace said that that is a question for each country to decide individually.— to decide individually. celestina olulode, thank _ to decide individually. celestina olulode, thank you _ to decide individually. celestina olulode, thank you for - to decide individually. celestina olulode, thank you for that. - bbc analysis has found that the number of pharmacies in england has fallen to its lowest level since 2015. 160 closed over the past two years, leaving just over 11,000 community chemists. the government's expected to announce an expanded role

for pharmacies tomorrow as part of efforts to help patients get better access to gps. but there are concerns about how achievable that will be. 0ur health editor, hugh pym, reports. i'm a second generation pharmacist. my mum and dad set up the pharmacy in 1982 so we'vejust had our a0 year anniversary. preparing for the morning rush in birmingham. i hear lovely stories about my dad and how he helped so many patients when they couldn't get support and advice from their gps. but for the first time in their history this pharmacy made a loss. thank you. staff shortages, higher costs and more people wanting help is making life difficult for pharmacists like sanj. we would love to help support the government, support the nhs, help gps, but we can't do it with the financial constraints that we're on. we can't give the advice, we can't be there for our patients. and for some of those patients, speaking to their local chemist is a lifeline.

they've dealt with my sister's meds, my meds, my mum's meds, the whole family. and if i've ever had a problem, couldn't get into a doctor's, i've come here and they've helped me out a lot _ don't go to the hospital, go to your gp. don't go to your gp, go to the pharmacy. so if you haven't got the pharmacy, where do you go? i really don't know what to suggest. we are full with deliveries, so i could try and get it out but it would be the middle of next week. tough to make those calls? yes, very. there's more and more people wanting delivery and we just can't get them all in. it's not right, but what can we do? they've got the potential to do so much more at a point when the nhs overall is under such strain. those representing pharmacists in england say real terms government funding has been cut, though they hope a new plan will improve things. what everyone learnt during the pandemic was one of the two places that will stay open is a pharmacy, so lots more people coming for advice and support

that we're not paid to provide. have we got a new prescription for this aspirin? 300 miles away in the scottish borders, a solution�*s already in place. it's a formal contract with the scottish government. unlike in england, pharmacies get paid for every consultation and some can prescribe medication for patients. i used to have an english pharmacy, but i sold it and all the outlets we have now are in scotland. the scottish contract is much more patient focused. they like to get a problem sorted as quick as they can. is it a 60 dose, or is it a 60 dose? the department of health said the services pharmacists could provide in england were being increased and extra investment had been announced. the government want pharmacies to take on more of a role in community health care. what's your message to them? i'd hope rishi sunak could understand the situation that we're in. his mother was a pharmacist, father was a gp so they're in health care.

they understand the pressures, they understand the value that we can offer to our communities. would you like him to come here and see for himself? i've love him to come and see, to see what we do, again, how patients feel about what we offer. and actually that this is serious, and that the sector is crumbling. it is going to fall down like a stack of dominoes if there's not intervention urgently. hugh pym, bbc news. britain's investment minister is in hong kong to try to boost business with the territory. dominicjohnson�*s visit is the first by a british ministerforfive years. lord johnson said the uk would continue to highlight violations of freedom in hong kong by china. but he said the government had an obligation to engage constructively. nick marsh reports. before his trip, lord johnson denied that britain was ducking its historical responsibilities to the people of hong kong. he said britain would continue to call china out, be robust when it came to violations of freedoms in the city.

but ultimately that is not why he is there. he is there to do business. he wants to attract investment in the uk, particularly in the areas of financial services, financial technologies, and the same goes for vice versa, by the way. hong kong finance officials were in london last month trying to do the same thing. but really, itjust shows how much has changed in the past three orfour years. during the 2019 protests in hong kong, britain was very vocal in its support of the demonstrators. it was critical of the crackdown, of the national security law. there was even talk of sanctions being put in place. but in the end, it really was just talk, and since then that tension has kind of fizzled out. the uk government position has softened considerably. it was only a couple of weeks ago that the foreign secretary james cleverly was talking about the need to engage with china rather than isolate it. and you just have to look

at the case in point on the weekend, the king's coronation. china's representative there was the vice president, and he was the man who led the crackdown and helped force through the national security law in hong kong in 2019 and 2020. so, definitely compromises being made there, and perhaps a reflection of the economic and political reality that britain finds itself in. the run up to this year's eurovision song contest is officially under way in liverpool, — which kicked things off last night with an open—air concert. 0ur media and arts correspondent david sillito reports. liverpool, are you ready? # her name is she, queen of the kings # running so fast, beating the wind # nothing in this world can stop the spread of her wings # she, queen of the kings # broken her cage, threw out the keys # she will be the warrior of the north and southern seas. welcome to the glory

of the turquoise carpet. this is finland, by the way. and what is the glorious, glamorous beginning of what is essentially a week of eurovision fun. douze points, douze points all round. are you having a good time? liverpool 2023. factor 30 sunshine... it's hot! and a dawning ofjust what an event this has become. this feels like, just on a totally different scale. and this was just the beginning. the city was also hosting a eurovision rave, jointly held in both liverpool and the country which should have been hosting the event this year, ukraine. # what a pushover, yeah...# and a eurovision concert featuring a reunion of some liverpool pop royalty — frankie goes to hollywood. # going home where lovers roam...#

it was a musical overture to what will be a week of eurovision. definitely a moment to hit the video button. david sillito, bbc news, liverpool. 0ur reporter — daniel rosney — is at the venue in liverpool. the glorious weather has changed. as you can see, it is wet weather that is greeting the 37 acts from the 37 countries that are now in liverpool and they will all be represented on the biggest stage in the world. it is one of the biggest entertainment productions, 160 million watch this every single year. right now, a full run—through of tomorrow night's semifinal is taking place. we will be able to see it in this room, but i cannot show you that because it is top secret. but i can tell you it is looking slick. 15 acts will be performing tomorrow night, with ten making it through to the grand final on saturday. the theme this year is united by music, and across the city, you can see that. there are so many events

outside of this arena that are taking place to showcase liverpudlian culture and ukrainian culture. last night, there was a simultaneous rave that happened in liverpool and in kyiv. there are so many art installations across the city. and you can really feel, despite the weather, the energy of eurovision. it is like a fever that has descended on the city. it all takes place this week. you have the first semifinal tomorrow, the second one on thursday and the big grand final extravaganza on saturday evening. it is definitely one to watch this week. daniel, just tell us again how many viewers are expected? i think i missed the number, and i was pretty impressed by that number. what is it again? it is a big number, it is 160 million. outside of sport, there is no bigger audience. that is amazing. this has been running for more than 60 years. this is the 67th song contest, and it is still relevant and still able to launch global superstars.

maneskin, who won from italy in 2021, have become huge stars all over the world. they are playing the glastonbury festival injune and were nominated for a grammy this year for best new artist. it has launched the careers of celine dion, abba, 0livia newtonjohn in the past, but it is still able all these years later to break artists around the world. two bbcjournalists, kate vandy and anna holligan, have transformed an electric cargo bicycle into a mobile office and studio. it's called the bike bureau, and enables them to do solo—operated, and solar powered, live reports across tv, digital and radio platforms. the aim is to help the bbc on its journey to reach net zero. let's get more now from anna holligan. is it harsh of the hague? i am coming to you live from the bike bureau. this has been a passion project

for cape verde and i for years. it's kind of like the swiss army knife of mobile broadcasting and already using a cargo bike has been a game changerfor me. taking you to the heart of breaking news. being able to deposit my daughter at school, be live on air a few minutes later. but we thought it had the potential to do even more. so now we can finally reveal the results. introducing the bike bureau. it contains all the kit we need for newsgathering, interviews, and to provide tv and radio lives. connecting via our phones, and transmitting around the world. well, are you concerned a hooligan is outside the icc in the hague? this is our innovation, a pragmatic and sustainable way to carry out our mobile journalism. and we hope you'll find it inspiring. using this bike is revolutionising

what we can do, how long we can do it for, and allows us to take you to the heart of breaking news in a climate conscious way. we also hope the bike bureau will help the bbc achieve its goal to become the greenest broadcaster in the world. since switching from car to bike two years ago. anna has already racked up 10,000 kilometres on her bike while working, massively cutting her emissions. but we believe there is the potential to do even more. this is just phase one. we chose the netherlands as the perfect place to pilot this project. editorially, we will be using the bike bureau to focus on solutions and track down positive stories and tech developments that could transform our lives. and we want you to be part of this journey. if you have stories that you think the bike should be covering, then send them our way. i will be sharing more in the coming

days, possibly even a good news cycle to talk about. it's so nice to actually share some positive news, and this is really about three key things. so sustainability, of course, it helps us to reduce our emissions and change the way we actually go about gathering news. it's empowering as well because as mobile journalists, we're encouraged to to operate solo. we can chuck everything in the bike and go right to where we need to be to be able to talk to you. and it's not something that will necessarily work for everyone or work everywhere. but we hope it will inspire people to think differently about how they possibly live and work, too. and the other thing is the cost—of—living crisis. so having an electric cargo bike in order to do my mobilejournalism has meant i can get rid of a car. i don't have to pay for petrol, parking costs and all that kind of thing. and as you just heard, this is still a pilot project. it's just phase one. we're still fine tuning

little bits and pieces, but it's really... it's great to be able to share this with you. and we're really hoping to to crowdsource ideas and take you along on this journey with us. music to my ears. well, how much experimentation went into developing the prototype for the bike bureau? so much. so, we first came up with the idea a couple of years ago when kate and i were filming a documentary called europe's cycling revolution. it was during the covid pandemic. and we were looking then at how cities were changing, and we followed people who were using cargo bikes. and at the time, as a mother of a young child, and a journalist, i saw the potential... we both saw the potential, kate and i, and how

we could use this for for news, for newsgathering, for lives. and so after that, we started to think about how the bike could become a mobile office. and we wanted it to be a kind of piece of our case, a device that would allow us to arrive somewhere, just like a set truck used to do in the olden days and still does, and then stay there all day. so, you know, we have a coffee machine, we have a solar panel, so we can use the sun to keep broadcasting all day long. all we need really, actually is a portaloo in order to be able to do that. but apart from that, it has pretty much everything you need to be. mobile broadcasting from the scene of breaking news all day long. now, there have been many notable fashion moments over the coronation weekend — let's take a quick look at some of the most impactful ones, with our reporter yasmin. it is, of course, the king charles and queen camilla's long weekend. but some of the standout fashion moments came from various others attending the events over this last weekend. most commonly, at the service in westminster abbey, we've got the princess of wales

here in alexander mcqueen. we know she wears the british brand on her big moments. she wore it on her wedding day. she's wearing it here again. you can see some of the embellishment on the dress. it's got has got the embroidery of the floral emblems of the uk. that's rose thistle, daffodil and shamrock. you can see embellished on her dress, princess charlotte wearing a matching cape coat dress, along with her mother. also, the mantle of the royal victorian 0rder cloak worn over her ivory dress by alexander mcqueen. also, you see the earrings worn by the princess of wales belonged to the late princess of wales, princess diana. lots of conversation about whether we'd see the prince of wales in a tiara. we'd heard that guests royal from abroad had been asked to wear day dress. i think the prince of wales has gone for something in between. silver bullion and crystal thread was used by the milliner, jess collett, in collaboration

with alexander mcqueen and interestingly, jess collett had received funding from the prince's trust when she started out as business. penny mordaunt, mp. lots of conversation about her outfit, which was a break with tradition. she's the first woman to take on this role, and she had a custom outfit made by sophia london. the teal outfit has fern adorned onto it in gold thread. her cape coat dress had a matching headpiece to go. jill biden in ralph lauren, an american brand. we had the first lady, of course, representing the president of the united states. she attended the event with her granddaughter and cornflower blue and buttercup yellow. though they were representing america, they were in the colours of ukraine, as can be seen. also, prince harry, interestingly, and kimjones, designed by dior. and princess eugenie and lvmh owned fendi, and princess beatrice

in beulah, london, sticking to a british brand there. hello. we're going to see some warm sunshine in the next couple of days. but don't leave home without a mac or a brolly, because what the sunshine will do in the next few days is inject energy in to quite an unstable atmosphere and we're going to see clouds like these scuttling across our skies, and some pretty heavy showers eventually developing with hail and thunder at times. low pressure basically keeping the weather across the uk unsettled. as we go through the majority of this week, we've got a band of pretty heavy rain which will gradually pull clear of eastern england through the early part of tuesday, but following on from the west, some pretty intense showers out of northern ireland into northern england overnight, some heavier ones for the north—east of scotland. it is a very mild night to come — temperatures largely in double figures.

we are sitting in some pretty warm air, but that's all part of the reason why things will become so thundery. we start the day with that rain across eastern counties of england. out of the way, i think mid—morning. then comes the sunshine. should feel pleasantly warm, just light winds. but by the afternoon we'll start to see the showers developing, in some areas they'll cluster together into longer spells of rain. some areas may stay dry altogether, but where the downpours do develop, they are likely to be pretty intense. 17—18 degrees as highs, but obviously cooler if you are caught in the showers. low pressure sets the tone for our weather throughout the majority of the week ahead. and occasionally we'll see showers coming across in these more organised bands. and what that will mean is for some areas, the spells of rain will be more relentless, more prolonged. some areas may well experience that relatively dry story. but i think by wednesday afternoon, there is a chance of seeing a shower just about anywhere, and some pretty heavy rain in a short space of time. definitely not to be ruled out.

so obviously that can bring quite a lot of surface water and spray if you're travelling around. and it's a little cooler for wednesday, highs of 15 to 17 degrees. and there it is, low pressure still with us across the uk wednesday into thursday, it starts to become a slightly weaker affair, but actually, if anything, all lighter winds do is mean the showers don't move through quite so quickly. so if anything, perhaps on thursday, if you do find yourself in a downpour, you could be stuck with it for a slightly longer period of time. friday, it looks like we mayjust see a little ridge of high pressure heading our way and something drier to end the week.

today at six. the final day of the coronation weekend, sees thousands join in community events, right across the uk. after the street parties and cake, it's litter picking off beaches, and scout activities. the message, the importance of volunteering. even william and louis got involved, helping renovate the grounds of a scout hut in slough. 0ffical coronation images are released, as king charles issues a message of �*heartfelt thanks' to those who've taken part. also on the programme... police say they've charged four people, after making 64 arrests, related to saturday's coronation.

a bbc investigation finds the number of pharmacies in england has fallen