The US vice-president, JD Vance, will face calls for greater consultation and coherence when he meets European leaders, including the president of Ukraine, at a security conference in Munich.

The timing of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with US officials, initially scheduled for Friday morning, remained unclear because the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had to change his flight from Washington when the plane experienced a mechanical fault.

The expected showdown came after 48 hours in which senior members of the Trump administration, including the president, unleashed a volley of contradictory positions on how and when negotiations with Russia about Ukraine’s future would be conducted.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vance tried to quell criticism that Donald Trump had made a series of premature and unilateral concessions in a phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

He said the US would still be prepared to impose sanctions on Russia if Moscow did not accept a satisfactory deal. “There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” he said.

Vance added the option of sending US troops to Ukraine if Moscow failed to negotiate in good faith remained “on the table”. He said there were “economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the US could use against Putin.

Before being nominated as vice-president, Vance said he did “not really care about Ukraine’s future, one way or the other”.

Rubio added that the US had an interest in the long-term independence of Ukraine, remarks intended to imply some form of security guarantee for Ukraine.

Trump has also insisted that any deal would be in consultation with Ukraine, but he has been less emphatic about the involvement of Europeans – an omission that has infuriated leaders of the continent, who believe any Ukrainian settlement will have profound consequences for European security.

Trump reiterated that it would not be possible for Ukraine to ever join Nato since Putin would not accept it. In his view, Ukraine is aware of this. “I think that’s how it will have to be,” Trump said.

Instead, he foresaw Russia rejoining the G7 group of wealthy countries as part of its reintegration into western economies.

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was due to meet his Polish counterpart in Warsaw on Friday, said the US was not making premature concessions.

European leaders have long expected Trump would slash US support for Ukraine, but have been shocked by the lack of planning by the administration and the absence of consultation with allies.

The French president joined the chorus of politicians demanding the US adopt a more careful and coordinated approach. “A peace that is a capitulation is bad news for everyone,” Emmanuel Macron said.

“The only question at this point is whether President Putin is sincerely, sustainably … prepared for a ceasefire on that basis,” he said, adding that Europe would have a “role to play” in regional security discussions.

The most angry response from a senior European politician came from Kaja Kallas, the new EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian president.

“Why are we giving them [Russia] everything they want even before the negotiations have started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked,” she said, adding that Nato membership for Ukraine was the “strongest” and “cheapest” security guarantee available.

She suggested the war would continue with European support if Zelenskyy was cut out of the talks. “If there is agreement made behind our backs, it simply will not work,” Kallas said. “The Ukrainians will resist and we will support them.”

Hegseth also downplayed the relevance of European values to security policy: “We can talk all we want about values. Values are important. But you can’t shoot values. You can’t shoot flags and you can’t shoot strong speeches. There is no replacement for hard power.”

Ukraine remains on “an irreversible path” towards Nato membership, Keir Starmer has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that underlined the divide between Europe and the US over the future of the country.

According to a Downing Street readout of the call with the Ukrainian president, Starmer stressed “the UK’s concrete support for Ukraine, for as long as it’s needed”.

It went on: “He was unequivocal that there could be no talks about Ukraine, without Ukraine. Ukraine needed strong security guarantees, further lethal aid and a sovereign future, and it could count on the UK to step up.

“The prime minister reiterated the UK’s commitment to Ukraine being on an irreversible path to Nato, as agreed by allies at the Washington summit last year.”

While Starmer’s sentiments are no more than a restatement of the UK’s longstanding position, one maintained by both Labour and the Conservatives, the decision to speak to Zelenskyy and the strong language used has a fresh resonance after Donald Trump’s interventions this week.

On Wednesday, the US president suddenly announced that he and Vladimir Putin had spoken at length and agreed to begin negotiations over a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump said it was unlikely Kyiv would win back all its territory, and that he was “OK” with Ukraine not having Nato membership, a major concession to Moscow made before any formal talks have begun. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, speaking at a Nato meeting in Brussels, also ruled out Ukraine’s membership of the alliance and the restoration of Crimea and other territories occupied by Moscow since 2014.

The news prompted dismay in Ukraine and ebullience in Moscow at the apparent end of Russia’s isolation on the world stage. However, European defence ministers, who have gathered in Brussels for a Nato meeting this week, have pushed back hard against concessions to Russia.

Speaking overnight, Emmanuel Macron said a peace deal would amount to “capitulation”, and that only Zelenskyy could negotiate on behalf of his country.

Downing Street said Starmer and the Ukrainian president agreed in their call that the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, in 10 days’ time, “would be an important moment to demonstrate international unity and support for Ukraine”.

It continued: “The leaders also reflected on the prime minister’s visit to Kyiv last month, and the president updated on his plans at Munich security conference. They agreed to stay in close contact.”

Shortly before the phone call, the UK Foreign Office imposed sanctions targeting figures working in the Russian government, including Pavel Fradkov, a defence minister, and Vladimir Selin, who leads an arm of the country’s ministry of defence. The Foreign Office said in a statement it also sanctioned Artem Chaika, whose extractives company supports Russian state-owned business, and two entities linked to Russia’s nuclear energy corporation Rosatom.

Emmanuel Macron has warned against a peace deal over the Ukraine war that would amount to “capitulation” as Donald Trump suggested Russia might not make any concessions in negotiations.

The French president said only the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, could negotiate on behalf of his country with Russia to end the war, warning in an interview with the Financial Times that a “peace that is a capitulation” would be “bad news for everyone”, including the US.

The comments come amid fears in Europe that Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, are trying to negotiate the future of the continent’s security over the heads of European leaders themselves, with the US president already making a raft of concessions.

“The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably and credibly willing to agree to a ceasefire on this basis. After that, it’s up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia,” Macron told the FT.

Trump said on Thursday that US and Russian officials would meet on Friday in Munich, where a major security conference is being held, and that Ukraine was also invited.

However, Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, said: “Talks with Russians in Munich are not expected.” Ukraine believed the US, Europe and Ukraine needed a common position before holding talks with Moscow, he said.

During a joint press conference with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, at the White House on Thursday evening, the US president was asked what, if anything, he expected Russia to give up.

“Russia has gotten themselves into something that I think they wish they didn’t,” Trump replied. “If I were president, it would not have happened, absolutely would not have happened. And it didn’t happen for four years.”

He added: “Now Russia has taken over a pretty big chunk of territory and they also have said from day one, long before President Putin, they’ve said they cannot have Ukraine be in Nato. They said that very strongly. I actually think that was the thing that caused the start of the war, and [Joe] Biden said it and Zelenskyy said it.”

It was “too early” to say what would happen in the talks, Trump insisted. “Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won’t. And it’s all dependent on what is going to happen. The negotiation really hasn’t started.”

Zelenskyy is expected to meet the US vice-president, JD Vance, at a security conference in Germany on Friday. Trump on Thursday announced plans to begin negotiations with Russia, saying he thought Putin “wants peace” in Ukraine and “would tell me if he didn’t”.

Macron told the FT it would be up to Ukraine to discuss issues of territory and sovereignty but added that Europe had a role to play in regional security.

“[It] is up to the international community, with a specific role for the Europeans, to discuss security guarantees and, more broadly, the security framework for the entire region,” he said. “That is where we have a role to play.”

Ukrainians voiced unease after it emerged Trump has been privately speaking to Putin to negotiate a ceasefire, with some pondering whether they have a future in their own country.

That unease has been shared by some Republicans in the US Senate. “Ukraine ought to be the one to negotiate its own peace deal,” said John Cornyn, a foreign relations committee member, according to the Hill. “I don’t think it should be imposed upon it by any other country, including ours. I’m hopeful.”

Mike Rounds was quoted as saying: “There are concerns I think all of us have that Russia be recognised for the aggressor that they are.” Susan Collins said: “I appreciate that the president is trying to achieve peace, but we have to make sure that Ukraine does not get the short end of a deal.”

On Thursday evening, Trump also used the press conference with Modi to again accuse Europe of falling short in its support for Ukraine. Trump said: “We had some talks and we told the European Union, we told the Nato people – largely they overlap – you have to pay more money because it’s unfair what we’re doing.

“We’re doing a tremendous amount more, we’re probably $200bn more going into Ukraine, using for Ukraine to fight, and Europe has not really carried its weight in terms of the money. It’s not equitable and we want to see a counterbalance. We want to have them put up more money. They have to do that.”

Last month the EU said that since the start of the war it had made available close to $145bn in financial, military, humanitarian and refugee assistance to Ukraine.

As Donald Trump continues to threaten to take control over the Gaza Strip, an unlikely consensus has emerged across hardcore jihadist and far-right circles: both strongly oppose any new US military actions in the territory.

Now experts are warning that Trump’s plan is galvanizing two of the most dangerous and organized extremist movements with track records of domestic terrorist attacks.

What initially began as an impromptu proposal during a White House visit with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, now appears to be the makings of serious policy: the president wants to turn Gaza into a sort of American resort on the Mediterranean, despite widespread condemnation from the global community.

“We’re going to take it,” said Trump last week. “We’re going to hold it.”

The United Nations chief called Trump’s plan “ethnic cleansing” while two key regional allies, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, have outright rejected it. Since the 7 October attacks in 2023, at least 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza (many of whom are women and children) have died.

But any hypothetical takeover of war-torn Gaza – still teeming with thousands of Hamas fighters – undoubtedly requires American troops to be deployed to the Middle East on a mission of occupation for the first time since the failed Iraq war. Of course, the Islamic State (IS), originally an offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq, was spawned out of that conflict.

Already, some of its propagandists and supporters are vowing to fight Trump’s plans for Gaza.

“Islamic State knew that the [Americans] will takeover Gaza and displace the Palestinian [Muslims] to Sinai and other nearby countries and now we have Trump [infidel] who is talking about taking Gaza and displacing its population,” said one IS propagandist on an internal RocketChat, the group’s choice encrypted messaging service that it uses for recruitment.

Trump is demanding that Egypt and Jordan, along with the other Arab League countries, take in Palestinian refugees he intends to displace during his rebuilding of Gaza.

Another IS propaganda image spreading online through its media wing shows a picture of Trump pointing to Gaza on a map with the message: “The [infidels] will never succeed.”

“It is a Jewish project under American sponsorship that aims to fire the last bullet of mercy on the so-called ‘issue’ of the Arab-Palestinian conflict and the Israeli conflict,” wrote another unknown IS operative about Trump’s plans, in one of its recent monthly magazines to followers.

Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and a research fellow at the Soufan Center, pointed out that “Islamic State supporters have taken to social media and messaging applications to capitalize on these comments and frame them as confirming the organization’s already-developing narratives about US support for Israel and its policies”.

Webber says it’s a continuation of a highly successful campaign after 7 October to “tap into sentiments stirred up by the Israeli military response to Hamas’s attack to gain support, recruit, fundraise and incite violence”.

He also noted that IS has newly active cells all over the world and has made concerted efforts to inspire followers in the US, such as the recent mass casualty event in New Orleans over the holidays.

“The recent statement provides fodder for [IS] to continue leveraging this potent issue,” said Webber.

On the other side of the spectrum, white nationalists of almost every ilk have gone against the Trump administration’s designs on Gaza. For accelerationist neo-Nazis, the kinds that preach coordinated bombings and other attacks to bring down the US government, they are undoubtedly inspired by their antisemitic hatred for Israel.

“TRUMP TO SEND WHITES TO DIE FOR JEWS IN OCCUPATION OF GAZA,” said one prominent neo-Nazi account on Telegram in a post with over 2,000 views. “At present, our race is under the direction of hostile foreign tribes.”

That account promised to “organize our people” against any Gaza war and the government.

“They still want to genocide western white men,” said another user in response to that post. “Don’t be fooled by certain concessions the system will try to make.”

“They still very much hate you, but need you to fight their war.”

Many have also pointed out that if any potential occupation of Gaza looks anything similar to the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, it means the deaths of American soldiers.

“If Trump actually tries to follow through, there will be a war in which Americans will be expected to fight,” said one of the most influential neo-Nazi accounts on Telegram. “Are you going to go fight and die so Trump can give Gaza to Israel?”

Joshua Fisher-Birch, a terrorism analyst at the non-profit Counter Extremism Project, said that a prospective Gaza occupation has angered the far right “more than any other issue has in 2025 so far”.

“White supremacist online propagandists have reacted to Trump’s idea to take over Gaza with disgust and have stated that it is an act of betrayal,” he said. “The proposal is being portrayed as Trump sending white Americans to die on behalf of Israel.”

One common theme emerging is that veterans of the “war on terror”, some of whom are operating these far-right Telegram accounts, are denouncing wars in far-off countries.

“Our war is here,” said one popular far-right account that is run by a US military veteran. “Not in Ukraine, not in Gaza, but right here on the North American continent.”

Fisher-Birch said he had seen that account and those of other veterans who are deeply unhappy.

“Several Telegram channels run by individuals who claim to be [global war on terrorism] veterans have condemned Trump’s Gaza takeover plan,” he said. “Other channels have stated that the extreme risks associated with the plan are a good reason why white men should avoid the military and seek training elsewhere.”

Rebels from the Rwandan-backed M23 group have seized the strategically important airport serving Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a rapid advance south in recent days.

The airport in the town of Kavumu, where Congolese troops had been positioned, is the last military obstacle to the rebels before Bukavu, a city of about a million people 17 miles (27km) to the south.

The airport’s fall, which was reported by Reuters and Agence France-Presse quoting security and humanitarian sources, has prompted fears of an imminent push on the city itself. Last month the rebels took Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, in a similar lightning offensive.

On Thursday the group captured Kabamba and the commercial centre of Katana as they advanced south along the N2 road. “M23 soldiers are blocking the road and are heading towards Kavumu – they already have control of Katana,” a resident told Reuters.

Airport employees said it had been emptied and in effect closed, with Congolese forces having removed an aircraft and other equipment. Troops were seen heading back to Bukavu in military trucks and on motorbikes laden with mattresses and other belongings.

Bukavu previously fell to soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in 2004 and the capture of the city would in effect give the M23 total control of the Lake Kivu area.

Corneille Nangaa, the head of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, said militias had been attacked and were defending themselves.

Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, travelled to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference on Friday as he seeks international support to end the conflict in eastern DRC.

He is not attending this weekend’s annual African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, which is focused on efforts to halt the conflict, with the prime minister, Judith Suminwa Tuluka, taking his place.

Fighting has raged in eastern DRC for the last three years, but the recent surge in violence has prompted multiple international calls for de-escalation and worsened an already dire humanitarian situation. The fighting has destroyed 70,000 emergency shelters around Goma and Minova in South Kivu, leaving 350,000 internally displaced people without shelter, according to the UN.

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgent groups that have operated in the mineral-rich eastern DRC since a 2003 deal was meant to end wars that had killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and disease. The group is backed by Rwanda, which says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide. The Congolese government and several UN reports say in fact Rwanda is using the group as a means to extract and then export valuable minerals for use in products such as mobiles phones.

The fighting has roped in armies of many countries from within and outside the continent, including those that contribute to a UN peacekeeping mission. Canada announced this week it had withdrawn its military personnel from the force, citing “increasingly perilous security conditions” in Goma.

On Thursday a popular Congolese singer was killed in the city while making a music video. The body of Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki, popularly known by his stage name Delcat Idengo, was found along a road near Kilijiwe district in northern Goma in the afternoon, with witnesses saying he died on the spot after being shot in the head.

Social media images showed the body of Vinywasiki, dressed in military trousers for the video shoot, lying on the ground.

Vinywasiki, whose songs often criticised conflict and human rights violations in DRC, was one of hundreds of prisoners who broke out of a prison in Goma during the M23 advance last month. He had been incarcerated for allegedly inciting people to arm themselves and force UN peacekeepers out of the country and was awaiting trial.

The circumstances around the singer’s death are unclear. Patrick Muyaya, a DRC government spokesperson, condemned the killing, which he described as abominable. “Neither horror, nor terror, and even less the untimely resort to arms against innocent civilians will be able to extinguish the flame of resistance in Goma and throughout the country,” he wrote on X.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

One of Europe’s most-wanted drug lords has been living in Sierra Leone for at least two years, spending time at nightclubs and house parties, sources have told the Guardian.

Johannes Leijdekkers, a Dutch national, has been sentenced in absentia to decades in prison for offences including cocaine trafficking on a vast scale and ordering a murder. In September Dutch police said he remained missing and offered a €200,000 (£170,000) reward for any information leading to his arrest.

In a dramatic development last month that sent ripples through international law enforcement circles, Leijdekkers was seen attending a New Year’s Day church service with Sierra Leone’s presidential family, in footage posted on Facebook by the country’s first lady.

Reuters, which verified the footage using facial recognition technology, quoted sources who said he had been benefitting from high-level protection in Sierra Leone, one of a number of west African transit points for cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe. Responding to the footage, Dutch prosecutors said Leijdekkers had been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months.

But Leijdekkers’ presence can now be dated back to at least December 2022. Multiple sources told the Guardian that he was present at a New Year’s Eve party that year at the Mamba Point resort in the capital, Freetown. The testimony corroborated footage that has been circulating in Sierra Leone of a man who resembles Leijdekkers involved in a fracas at a nightclub. Analysis of the footage showed it had been filmed at Mamba Point. At one point the words “Happy New Year 2023” can be seen on a screen in the background.

Sources also placed Leijdekkers at a house party hosted by a popular Lebanese couple in the Tokeh beach area in December 2023. Footage from the party shows a man resembling Leijdekkers in attendance.

Sources said Leijdekkers has been in a relationship with Agnes Bio, a daughter of Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio. Leijdekkers and Bio were sitting next to each other in the church service footage from 1 January this year. Bio is the president’s daughter from a previous relationship with Zainab Kandeh, Sierra Leone’s consul to Morocco. She serves as an alternate representative of Sierra Leone on the UN Security Council.

The Dutchman was also present at Maada Bio’s farm in his hometown of Tihun during a visit in 2024, according to an official in the presidency who spoke anonymously. Footage of a man resembling Leijdekkers has been in circulation showing him being cheered by villagers as he bent to harvest rice.

Leijdekkers, who has assumed numerous aliases and nicknames, including Bolle Jos, was sentenced in absentia by a Rotterdam court last June to 24 years in prison for six drug transports totalling 7,000kg of cocaine, an armed robbery in Finland, and ordering the murder of an associate. He was also given a 10-year sentence in absentia by a court in Belgium in September over an attempt to smuggle drugs via the port of Antwerp in 2020.

Organised criminal groups have long used west African countries as a staging post for cocaine shipments from South America to Europe. The revelations about Leijdekkers come at an awkward moment for the authorities in Sierra Leone, which last month recalled its ambassador from neighbouring Guinea after seven suitcases containing suspected cocaine were found in an embassy vehicle.

After the first reports emerged of Leijdekkers’ presence in Sierra Leone, authorities in Freetown said the president had “no knowledge about the identity and the issues detailed in the reports about the individual in question”. The presidency official told the Guardian that the presidency had been unaware of Leijdekkers’ background until a Reuters report on 24 January. The official gave no further details.

In a press conference last week in Freetown, inspector-general of police William Fayia Sellu, said an “open-source investigation” into the footage from 1 January had determined that the “the individual in the pictures being circulated online is called Omar Sheriff”.

“Raids have been conducted at specific locations where this individual was said to be present and he has not been found yet,” Sellu said. He declined to say how the identity of the man had been determined or whether Omar Sheriff and Johannes Leijdekkers are the same person.

The information minister, Chernor Bah, told the same press conference that investigators were “looking into” whether the man they had identified had been in the country for more than six months. “I don’t think they [police] have established a definite timeframe yet,” Bah later told the Guardian. “At this stage, they are comfortable to say that records for the past six months don’t reveal that person via any formal entry points in our country.”

It remains unclear if Leijdekkers is still in Sierra Leone. Last week, the Dutch justice minister said an extradition request had been sent to authorities in the country. A representative for the Dutch justice ministry did not respond to a request for comments.

Pope Francis has cancelled his scheduled events over the next few days after being hospitalised, the Vatican said.

The pontiff, who has been suffering from bronchitis, was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday after reportedly having breathing difficulties during one of his meetings.

The Vatican said he would undertake “some necessary diagnostic tests and continue his treatment for bronchitis, which is still ongoing, in a hospital environment”.

The pontiff’s planned attendance at an audience on Saturday has been cancelled, while mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica on Sunday will instead be delivered by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça. A visit to the Cinecittà film studios on Monday has also been cancelled.

Francis, 88, held several meetings on Friday before being taken to hospital, including with Mark Thompson, the CEO of the CNN news channel, which later reported that the pontiff was “mentally alert but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties”.

The pope, who has been blighted by ill-health in recent years, was also hospitalised in March 2023 with acute bronchitis. After being discharged, he said: “I am still alive.” He was readmitted to the Gemelli for health checks in June that year and again in February 2024 after suffering from what he said was “a bit of a cold”.

Francis had part of his lung removed in his early 20s while training to be a priest in his native Argentina. In June 2021, he underwent a colon operation.

He has often been seen in a wheelchair or with a walking stick due to a sciatic nerve pain and a knee problem. In January, he injured his right forearm after falling at his Casa Santa Marta residence and on 1 February he stumbled after his walking stick snapped while entering the Vatican’s auditorium. In early December, Francis hit his chin on his nightstand, reportedly after a fall.

Francis, whose schedule has intensified because of this year’s catholic jubilee, has often alluded to resigning if bad health prevents him from doing his job. In 2023, he revealed he had chosen his burial place – the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Esquilino neighbourhood of Rome – breaking with the longstanding tradition of popes being buried in the grottos beneath St Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis has cancelled his scheduled events over the next few days after being hospitalised, the Vatican said.

The pontiff, who has been suffering from bronchitis, was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday after reportedly having breathing difficulties during one of his meetings.

The Vatican said he would undertake “some necessary diagnostic tests and continue his treatment for bronchitis, which is still ongoing, in a hospital environment”.

The pontiff’s planned attendance at an audience on Saturday has been cancelled, while mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica on Sunday will instead be delivered by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça. A visit to the Cinecittà film studios on Monday has also been cancelled.

Francis, 88, held several meetings on Friday before being taken to hospital, including with Mark Thompson, the CEO of the CNN news channel, which later reported that the pontiff was “mentally alert but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties”.

The pope, who has been blighted by ill-health in recent years, was also hospitalised in March 2023 with acute bronchitis. After being discharged, he said: “I am still alive.” He was readmitted to the Gemelli for health checks in June that year and again in February 2024 after suffering from what he said was “a bit of a cold”.

Francis had part of his lung removed in his early 20s while training to be a priest in his native Argentina. In June 2021, he underwent a colon operation.

He has often been seen in a wheelchair or with a walking stick due to a sciatic nerve pain and a knee problem. In January, he injured his right forearm after falling at his Casa Santa Marta residence and on 1 February he stumbled after his walking stick snapped while entering the Vatican’s auditorium. In early December, Francis hit his chin on his nightstand, reportedly after a fall.

Francis, whose schedule has intensified because of this year’s catholic jubilee, has often alluded to resigning if bad health prevents him from doing his job. In 2023, he revealed he had chosen his burial place – the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Esquilino neighbourhood of Rome – breaking with the longstanding tradition of popes being buried in the grottos beneath St Peter’s Basilica.

From her 1975 “gay cowboys” T-shirt to pioneering catwalk collections that challenged gender norms, the late Vivienne Westwood has long been heralded as an LGBT+ icon.

But the fashion house she built over five decades faces serious questions about whether the late designer’s values have endured, after allegations about homophobic bullying by its chief executive, Carlo D’Amario, were upheld by an independent investigation, the Guardian understands.

The Italian executive was accused by an employee in 2023 of using frequent homophobic slurs, bullying and discriminatory behaviour, it can be revealed.

An independent investigation by an employment barrister, which concluded in June 2023 after interviewing eight witnesses, upheld five of the complaints and found that D’Amario had likely broken employment law.

Yet, while the alleged victim of the bullying has left the company, D’Amario remains at the helm of the fashion house and enjoys a six-figure salary, company accounts suggest.

Vivienne Westwood Ltd did not return multiple requests for comment addressed to D’Amario and the company.

‘It looks too gay’

Questions over D’Amario’s performance as the steward of the Vivienne Westwood brand first came to the fore in November last year, when Westwood’s granddaughter – the designer and model Cora Corré – sensationally quit the company.

In her resignation letter, first reported by the Times, Corré accused D’Amario of misusing her grandmother’s designs and contesting trademarks in a way that prevented the Vivienne Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation set up by the designer in 2019 that is separate from the business – from raising charitable funds.

Corré claimed that her grandmother had been “deeply unhappy” about how D’Amario was running the company and wanted him removed as its chief executive but that the Italian had “bullied” Westwood, who died in 2022.

The company did not comment on the allegations at the time.

Now, documents seen by the Guardian raise fresh questions about D’Amario’s conduct, including allegations of bullying behaviour towards staff, discrimination and frequent use of homophobic language.

New allegations about the fashion executive’s behaviour have surfaced after a gay employee, who the Guardian has chosen not to identify, raised an internal grievance about D’Amario’s conduct.

D’Amario, 79, who has run Vivienne Westwood for almost four decades, had given the employee nicknames based on his sexuality, he claimed. The names included Mary Poppins, Mary Fairy and Homo Pomo, it was alleged.

The company called in Paul Livingston, an employment law specialist from Outer Temple Chambers, to conduct an internal investigation.

During interviews conducted by the lawyer, other staff stated that D’Amario had routinely used homophobic nicknames and language.

One said they had heard the term “homo pomo” used regularly, considered it homophobic at the time and “didn’t think it was meant affectionately”.

On another occasion, two witnesses said, D’Amario criticised displays in the company’s shops, saying they looked “too gay”. This comment had “horrified” some staff, according to one witness.

In interviews with Livingston, D’Amario denied all allegations of using homophobic language, saying: “No, in my position the question of gay is the last thing in my brain.”

One witness defended D’Amario, saying that he had never felt him to be homophobic, that “too gay” was commonly used in the fashion industry to mean overly flamboyant and that the Italian had come to his own gay wedding.

The employee suggested that the language barrier could be a factor in “misunderstandings”.

Another said they did not think D’Amario was homophobic.

Ultimately, the independent investigator upheld five allegations against D’Amario and said that the chief executive’s own denials of the alleged behaviour were not “persuasive”.

The lawyer also said that D’Amario had expressed a desire to take witnesses to court or speak to them and at one point asked who was paying for the investigation and what would happen if the company decided it did not want to pay for it.

“I have some concern that this was an attempt by [D’Amario] to put pressure on me as an investigator,” he said.

The report included witness testimony that the investigator did not offer an opinion about because it was not directly relevant to the claim by the employee.

That testimony included further allegations about D’Amario’s behaviour towards his employees.

D’Amario, said one witness, was “about as politically incorrect as you could ever get”.

He would, the witness said, say things such as “all these gay men in the company … you can’t trust them” and “all these gay men, they have no responsibilities”.

Another witness said that D’Amario used the phrase “gay parade” to describe people in the office who were well dressed.

A third alleged that D’Amario had also used racist language when talking about Chinese customers.

“I’m not racist but all your clients are members of the mafia,” D’Amario is alleged to have said to one staff member.

D’Amario denied making the mafia comment in interviews with Livingston. Vivienne Westwood Ltd declined to respond to multiple requests by the Guardian for comment addressed to the company itself and to D’Amario.

‘Excellent’ equality policies – but lack of action?

Westwood’s knack for shaking up the world of fashion was forged on London’s Kings Road, from the shop that she opened in 1971 with punk icon Malcolm McLaren, the manager of bands including the Sex Pistols.

Over five decades, Westwood built an empire that is among the most loved and respected in the fashion industry. It is also among the most profitable.

Based in a studio in south-west London, Vivienne Westwood Ltd has more than 300 employees and reported pre-tax earnings of £44m on £133m of revenues in 2023, according to Companies House records.

As the company’s boss since 1986, first as managing director and latterly as chief executive, D’Amario – a close confidant of Westwood’s – presided over this meteoric growth.

That corporate success went hand in hand with a strong commitment to Westwood’s own values, including activism on the climate crisis and human rights, espoused on the company’s website.

The label has also worn queer allyship on its sleeve, most recently via last year’s partnership with the non-binary singer Sam Smith.

Smith walked the catwalk at Westwood’s show for Paris fashion week in March 2024, showing off its fall/winter collection, to rave reviews from LGBT media outlets.

But the independent investigation into D’Amario’s conduct raises questions about whether the company’s apparent support for the LGBT+ community translated into firm action when it came to its leadership.

In his report, Livingston found that D’Amario’s behaviour in relation to two of the allegations constituted harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010, as well as a breach of the company’s own internal equality policy.

Executives were supposed to complete training on equality, diversion and inclusion, as well as unconscious bias for managers, the report found.

Yet many of the company’s top executives – including D’Amario and Westwood herself – never completed the training because they were not “computer skilled”, the report found.

Vivienne Westwood Ltd’s equality policy was an “excellent” one and would be a “useful starting point” for any future training, Livingstone added.

“It is a matter for the company as to what action should be taken following this report,” he wrote.

The company’s action stopped short of dismissing or demoting D’Amario.

Instead, he appears to have earned a six-figure salary for the year when the report was written, according to company accounts, which state the company’s highest-paid director earned £493,697 for the year to the end of 2023.

Vivienne Westwood Ltd did not respond to questions about what disciplinary measures had been taken against the chief executive.

The US has sent undocumented immigrants from several Asian countries whose governments have refused to accept them to Panama, in a move signalling an intensification of the Trump administration’s deportation effort.

A military plane carrying 119 immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan flew from California to Panama City on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first of three migrants flights to the country.

The revelation that Panama has become a destination for immigrants from countries whose governments have not agreed to take them back follows repeated threats by Donald Trump to seize the Panama Canal, whose ownership was handed to the Panamanian government in 1999 under the terms of a treaty signed with the US.

The agreement to accept migrants appears to have resulted from a visit to Panama last week by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.

José Raúl Mulino, Panama’s president, told reporters that the country had received “119 people form diverse nationalities of the world”.

The immigrants were being accommodated at a local hotel before being transported to the Darien Gap, a jungle area in southern Panama, in a process managed by the International Organization for Migration.

“We hope to get them out of there as soon as possible,” Mulino said. “This is another contribution Panama is making on the migration issue.”

He said the migrants would eventually be transferred to their countries of origin on flights funded by the US.

Panama is the latest Central American nation to agree to accept immigrants of other countries expelled from the US after El Salvador and Guatemala offered similar arrangements.

CBS reported that a second flight containing Asian and African deportees was scheduled to have left for Panama on Thursday. The network, citing internal government documents, said the flight would include citizens from Cameroon.

The Darien Gap, dividing Panama from Columbia, has become a busy transit route for immigrants making their way through Central America en route to the US. In 2023, more than half a million immigrants, mostly from Venezuela, crossed the Darien jungle into Panama. The number reduced to 300,000 last year.

A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine overnight, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said.

The attack came hours before the start of the Munich Security Conference, where discussions were dominated by the war in Ukraine and the announcement this week by Donald Trump that he would begin peace talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy said the damage to the shelter was “significant” and had started a fire, but he added that radiation levels at the plant had not increased. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the strike had not breached the plant’s inner containment shell.

The Ukrainian president said in a post on Telegram that the Chornobyl strike showed “Putin is certainly not preparing for negotiations”.

“The only state in the world that can attack such facilities, occupy the territory of nuclear power plants, and conduct hostilities without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia. And this is a terrorist threat to the entire world,” he wrote. “Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing,” he added.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, said Ukraine planned to provide detailed information to the US about the Chornobyl strike.

Without attributing blame, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, said on X that the Chornobyl strike and the recent increase in military activity near another nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia “underline persistent nuclear safety risks”, adding that the IAEA remained “on high alert”.

Concerns have repeatedly been raised during the conflict over the safety of Ukraine’s four nuclear plants, especially the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – the largest in Europe and among the world’s 10 biggest.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied Moscow was responsible for the attack. Without presenting evidence, he said Ukrainian officials wanted to thwart efforts to end the war through negotiations between Trump and Putin.

“The Russian military doesn’t do that. They don’t. This is most likely just another provocation,” Peskov said. “That’s exactly what the Kyiv regime like to do, and sometimes, in fact, does not shy away from doing.”

Ukrainian emergency services published a photograph that showed a searchlight illuminating a ragged hole in the roof of the plant’s damaged sarcophagus.

Zelenskyy is in Munich, where he will hold talks with the US vice-president, JD Vance, that may offer some insight into Trump’s vision for a negotiated settlement to the war.

The US president told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he trusted Putin’s assurances that he wanted peace, further heightening Kyiv’s concerns. Ukraine was already on edge after Trump’s phone call with the Russian leader earlier this week.

The family of a young Irish woman raped and murdered in India eight years ago have said justice has finally been achieved after a man was convicted in Goa.

Danielle McLaughlin, from Buncrana in County Donegal, was found dead in a field in Canacona, an area of Goa popular with holidaymakers, in March 2017.

The 28-year-old backpacker had travelled to Goa with a female Australian friend, and the pair were staying in a beach hut before the attack happened. They had been celebrating Holi – a Hindu spring festival – at a nearby village.

Local man Vikat Bhagat, then 24, who knew McLaughlin, was found guilty on Friday of her rape and murder at the district and sessions court in south Goa, her family’s solicitor said. He will be sentenced on Monday.

After the verdict, her mother and sister said they had endured eight years of torment trying to bring the perpetrator to justice, which has “finally been achieved”.

McLaughlin had previously spent time in India as a volunteer in an orphanage and had come back planning to learn to teach yoga while travelling.

Bhagat was arrested within hours of McLaughlin’s body being discovered.

The body of the former Liverpool John Moores University student was returned to Ireland after her death, with a postmortem examination finding brain damage and strangulation as the cause of death.

Her mother, Andrea Brannigan, and sister, Joleen McLaughlin, said in a statement issued by the family’s solicitor Desmond Doherty: “There was no other suspect or gang involved in Danielle’s death and Bhagat was solely responsible for cruelly ending her beautiful life.

“We have endured what has been effectively an eight-year murder trial with many delays and problems, right until the end, all taking place thousands of miles away from Danielle’s home.”

Her family said the trial had been very tiring but that they were glad it was over.

Last year, the family’s representatives told how the case had been brought to court on more than 250 occasions with hearings sometimes lasting only half an hour on any given day. On more than one occasion they have been adjourned due to the unavailability of the suspect.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Harris, paid tribute to the family, praising Brannigan’s “determination and resilience in the face of unimaginable tragedy”.

Thanking lawyers in both countries, the family said that the quest for truth and justice had been “no easy matter”, but they were content that there had been “judicial confirmation in public of what we already sadly knew”.

The family said: “We now hope not only that Danielle can rest in peace, but that we as a family can have some peace and comfort knowing that the person who brutally raped and murdered our precious Danielle has been convicted.”

Harris said: “While nothing can ease the pain of their loss, I hope that this verdict represents some closure for the family. My thoughts will remain with them as they continue to grieve the loss of their beloved daughter and sister.”

A self-styled mystic who drew hundreds of pilgrims to a town near Rome by claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood could face trial after a DNA test indicated the blood was hers.

Gisella Cardia, who also claimed that the statue was transmitting messages to her, was last year declared a fraud by the Roman Catholic church, which subsequently tightened its rules on supernatural phenomena.

Prosecutors in the port city of Civitavecchia opened their own fraud investigation into Cardia in 2023 after a private investigator claimed the blood on the statue, which at the time was placed in a glass case on a hill in Trevignano Romano, a town overlooking Lake Bracciano, near Rome, had come from a pig.

Some people alleged they were defrauded by Cardia, who created a foundation to collect donations that she said would go towards setting up a centre for sick children.

Prosecutors ordered the lab tests from Emiliano Giardina, a forensic geneticist who worked on the case of Yara Gambirasio, a teenager murdered in 2010, Corriere della Sera reported. The newspaper said the tests, completed on Thursday, attributed the blood stains to Cardia’s genetic profile. The result is expected to be handed to prosecutors on 28 February.

Cardia’s lawyer, Solange Marchignoli, suggested that the presence of Cardia’s DNA did not rule out a supernatural phenomena.

“The DNA stain warrants further investigation,” Marchignoli told Corriere. “We are waiting to find out whether it’s a mixed or single profile.” She argued that while it was obvious there would be traces of Cardia’s DNA because she had “kissed and handled the statue”, it could have been mixed up with others, possibly even that of the Virgin Mary. “Who can say? Do you know the Madonna’s DNA?”

Cardia, who has a previous conviction for bankruptcy fraud, bought the statue in 2016 at a Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It later became the centrepiece of the pilgrimage site she created in Trevignano Romano, with people from across Italy flocking to the town for monthly worship, much to the irritation of local residents.

Cardia reportedly left Trevignano, but it is unclear where she is now. Marchignoli said: “I don’t know where she’s currently praying, but I know for a fact that she is moved by a deep faith and has nothing to gain from this.”

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary and weeping statues have been part of Catholicism since time immemorial, but since last May only the pope has the final word on what constitutes a supernatural event. Before then, self-styled prophets and local bishops had the power to endorse such an occurrence.