Donald Trump’s tariffs have unleashed a “major negative shock” into the world economy, the International Monetary Fund has said, as it cut its forecasts for US, UK and global growth.

In a stark assessment of the impact of the US president’s policies, as global finance ministers prepare to meet in Washington, the IMF said: “We expect that the sharp increase on 2 April in both tariffs and uncertainty will lead to a significant slowdown in global growth in the near term.”

It came as Rachel Reeves was due to arrive in the US capital on Tuesday evening, ahead of what could be a key week for a US-UK trade deal. The chancellor, who will meet her US counterpart, Scott Bessent, for the first time, is expected to press the UK’s case for reduced tariffs. She said she would be “defending British interests and making the case for free and fair trade”.

Publishing the latest edition of its World Economic Outlook, the Washington-based IMF cut its forecast for global GDP growth to 2.8% for this year – 0.5% weaker than it was expecting as recently as January.

The IMF said that while its forecasts had been prepared on the basis of current trade policy, “intensifying downside risks dominate the outlook”.

Its forecasts show every major economy being hit, with the UK expected to grow by 1.1% this year, down from 1.6% predicted in January. The IMF expects a sharper deterioration for the US, from 2.7% to 1.8%.

It said that although tariffs and the uncertainty created would weigh on the economy in the UK, “domestic factors” were mainly to blame for the downgraded growth forecast. These included increased government borrowing costs and weaker consumer spending in response to higher UK inflation, partly driven by rising energy bills.

Responding to the UK downgrade, Reeves highlighted the fact that the IMF still expected it to be the “fastest-growing European G7 economy” in 2025.

As its spring meetings kick off, the IMF said that even after Trump’s “pause”, which suspended punitive “reciprocal tariffs” on a string of countries, trade barriers were at the highest level in a century.

Given the lack of clarity about the future direction of the policy, it predicted that companies throughout the global economy were likely to respond by cutting spending.

“Faced with increased uncertainty about access to markets – their own but also those of their suppliers and customers – many firms’ initial reaction will be to pause, reduce investment, and cut purchases. Likewise, financial institutions will re-evaluate their credit supply to businesses,” it said.

“The combined increased uncertainty and resulting tightening of financial conditions are a global negative demand shock and will weigh on activity.”

The IMF added that emerging economies may be hit especially hard, as “unfavourable global financial conditions” make it harder for them to service their debts – a situation that could be exacerbated by overseas aid cuts.

The UK recently announced a historic cut to its aid budget, to fund defence spending, and Trump is battling court action as he attempts to dismantle USAID.

“More limited international development assistance may increase the pressure on low-income countries, pushing them deeper into debt or necessitating significant fiscal adjustments, with immediate consequences for growth and living standards,” the IMF said.

As finance ministers prepare to meet, the IMF called for coordinated action to reduce trade tensions, restructure low-income countries’ debts, and “address shared challenges”. It is unclear what role the US could take in any such discussion, however, given its commitment to an “America first” approach.

The IMF expressed concern in the report about the shock waves unleashed in financial markets by Trump’s trade policies – and said worse may be to come.

In particular, it points to the risk of “strong volatility” in currency markets, which “may be difficult to navigate, especially for emerging market economies”.

The dollar was up 0.5% on Tuesday after earlier hitting a a three-year low, as Trump issued further criticism of Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, calling him “Mr Too Late” for failing to cut interest rates.

Wall Street shares rose on Tuesday after the US treasury secretary suggested a trade war with China was unsustainable and that the world’s two largest economies would have to find a way to de-escalate.

Bessent made the comments at a closed-door investor summit, according to Bloomberg. US shares had already opened higher and picked up after the comments were reported, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both up by more than 2%.

The IMF said the probability of a recession in the US had increased to nearly 40%, higher than its forecast of 25% made in October, the month before Trump’s election victory.

The global financial system is coming under increasing strain as Donald Trump’s trade war rocks markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

“Global financial stability risks have increased significantly,” the IMF said in its regular snapshot of the system, urging regulators to be on the alert for potential crises.

It pointed to the “sharp repricing of risk assets” that has followed the US president’s tariff announcements since February – in particular his 2 April “liberation day” statement – and warned that there may be more to come.

Published as finance ministers and central bankers gather in Washington for the IMF’s spring meetings – and as the IMF downgraded its forecasts for global growth amid tariff concerns – the Global Financial Stability Report identified what it called “forward-looking vulnerabilities” in markets.

These include what it said were overstretched valuations for stocks and bonds in some areas, even after recent sell-offs; the highly leveraged state of some financial institutions, including hedge funds; and the vulnerability of some governments to volatility in sovereign bond markets.

The IMF also warned economic policy and trade uncertainty were at an all-time high, “foreboding further shocks, corrections of asset prices, and tightening of financial conditions”.

Governments in emerging economies could be hit especially hard by sudden increases in borrowing costs, the IMF warned, suggesting “investor concerns about public debt sustainability and other fragilities in the financial sector can worsen in a mutually reinforcing fashion”.

Meanwhile, companies may find it more expensive to borrow, if volatile corporate bond markets drive up the cost of debt, it suggested – while households will be hit via “wealth effects”, if the value of their pensions and other investments continues to slide.

The Washington-based lender expressed particular concern about the growing role of “nonbank” lenders, which are much less heavily regulated than banks, but can still pose risks to the wider financial system.

The role of these lenders, which include pension and investment funds, has grown rapidly in recent years, after rules on banks were toughened up after the 2008 global financial crisis.

The IMF warned of a “deepening nexus” between these nonbank lenders and traditional banks. It suggested they could be forced to divulge more information to regulators, which could then identify and rein in “poorly governed and excessive risk-taking institutions”.

High levels of borrowing by these nonbank lenders also “imperils market functioning”, the IMF said, noting these investors had amplified a recent sell-off in US government bonds due to pressure to meet margin calls. This is when an investor must provide collateral to cover losses quickly.

Borrowing by hedge funds could also “exacerbate losses” during periods of market turmoil, the IMF said. At the hedge funds that make big macroeconomic bets, leverage can be as high as 40 times the value of their assets, the report found.

The institution also suggested big global banks could be underestimating the “true level of risk” attached to their business.

Banks use the “average risk-weight”, or “RWA density”, as a metric to reflect the level of risk connected to its business. However, the IMF found that data from international banks, even those with similar models and overall risk profiles, showed “wide variation” by this measure.

The IMF also urged governments to ensure there is sufficient capital and liquidity in the banking system to cope with a crisis – including by the “full, timely and consistent implementation” of the so-called Basel 3 rules, devised after the 2008 crisis.

The Bank of England recently delayed the implementation of the final stage of these rules, known as Basel 3.1, by a year in the UK, as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, pressed regulators to take a more pro-growth approach.

The report also flagged potential contagion risk in the private credit fund system, which it said could “spread credit shocks across institutions and countries”.

More companies are borrowing from private credit funds, it said, and big investors such as pension funds are increasingly backing foreign direct-lending funds.

As the market becomes more complex and global, “the risk that credit shocks will propagate from one jurisdiction to others intensifies”, the report said.

Separately on Tuesday, a member of the Bank’s rate-setting panel, Megan Greene, said US trade tariffs were more likely to push down UK inflation than to drive it up, but that there were risks on both sides.

Greene told Bloomberg: “The tariffs represent more of a disinflationary risk than an inflationary risk.” However, she added: “There’s a ton of uncertainty around this, but there are both inflationary and disinflationary forces.”

On Monday, Trump renewed his attack against the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, and the independence of the US central bank.

Greene said that “credibility is the currency of central banks and I think independence is quite an important piece of that”. She said the Bank could credibly try to hit its targets because it was free to make its own decisions.

The global financial system is coming under increasing strain as Donald Trump’s trade war rocks markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

“Global financial stability risks have increased significantly,” the IMF said in its regular snapshot of the system, urging regulators to be on the alert for potential crises.

It pointed to the “sharp repricing of risk assets” that has followed the US president’s tariff announcements since February – in particular his 2 April “liberation day” statement – and warned that there may be more to come.

Published as finance ministers and central bankers gather in Washington for the IMF’s spring meetings – and as the IMF downgraded its forecasts for global growth amid tariff concerns – the Global Financial Stability Report identified what it called “forward-looking vulnerabilities” in markets.

These include what it said were overstretched valuations for stocks and bonds in some areas, even after recent sell-offs; the highly leveraged state of some financial institutions, including hedge funds; and the vulnerability of some governments to volatility in sovereign bond markets.

The IMF also warned economic policy and trade uncertainty were at an all-time high, “foreboding further shocks, corrections of asset prices, and tightening of financial conditions”.

Governments in emerging economies could be hit especially hard by sudden increases in borrowing costs, the IMF warned, suggesting “investor concerns about public debt sustainability and other fragilities in the financial sector can worsen in a mutually reinforcing fashion”.

Meanwhile, companies may find it more expensive to borrow, if volatile corporate bond markets drive up the cost of debt, it suggested – while households will be hit via “wealth effects”, if the value of their pensions and other investments continues to slide.

The Washington-based lender expressed particular concern about the growing role of “nonbank” lenders, which are much less heavily regulated than banks, but can still pose risks to the wider financial system.

The role of these lenders, which include pension and investment funds, has grown rapidly in recent years, after rules on banks were toughened up after the 2008 global financial crisis.

The IMF warned of a “deepening nexus” between these nonbank lenders and traditional banks. It suggested they could be forced to divulge more information to regulators, which could then identify and rein in “poorly governed and excessive risk-taking institutions”.

High levels of borrowing by these nonbank lenders also “imperils market functioning”, the IMF said, noting these investors had amplified a recent sell-off in US government bonds due to pressure to meet margin calls. This is when an investor must provide collateral to cover losses quickly.

Borrowing by hedge funds could also “exacerbate losses” during periods of market turmoil, the IMF said. At the hedge funds that make big macroeconomic bets, leverage can be as high as 40 times the value of their assets, the report found.

The institution also suggested big global banks could be underestimating the “true level of risk” attached to their business.

Banks use the “average risk-weight”, or “RWA density”, as a metric to reflect the level of risk connected to its business. However, the IMF found that data from international banks, even those with similar models and overall risk profiles, showed “wide variation” by this measure.

The IMF also urged governments to ensure there is sufficient capital and liquidity in the banking system to cope with a crisis – including by the “full, timely and consistent implementation” of the so-called Basel 3 rules, devised after the 2008 crisis.

The Bank of England recently delayed the implementation of the final stage of these rules, known as Basel 3.1, by a year in the UK, as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, pressed regulators to take a more pro-growth approach.

The report also flagged potential contagion risk in the private credit fund system, which it said could “spread credit shocks across institutions and countries”.

More companies are borrowing from private credit funds, it said, and big investors such as pension funds are increasingly backing foreign direct-lending funds.

As the market becomes more complex and global, “the risk that credit shocks will propagate from one jurisdiction to others intensifies”, the report said.

Separately on Tuesday, a member of the Bank’s rate-setting panel, Megan Greene, said US trade tariffs were more likely to push down UK inflation than to drive it up, but that there were risks on both sides.

Greene told Bloomberg: “The tariffs represent more of a disinflationary risk than an inflationary risk.” However, she added: “There’s a ton of uncertainty around this, but there are both inflationary and disinflationary forces.”

On Monday, Trump renewed his attack against the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, and the independence of the US central bank.

Greene said that “credibility is the currency of central banks and I think independence is quite an important piece of that”. She said the Bank could credibly try to hit its targets because it was free to make its own decisions.

At least 26 tourists have been killed and ten injured after suspected militants opened fire at a popular local tourist destination in Kashmir during a scheduled four-day visit to the country by the US president JD Vance.

Most of the victims were Indian, although two foreign nationals were also reportedly among the dead.

The attack occurred in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town located 90 kilometres south of Srinagar, the region’s main city, in what officials are describing as the deadliest attack on civilians in the region in recent years.

At about 3pm local time, a group of gunmen, who apparently approached tourists from the direction of the nearby mountains, emerged from a dense pine forest.

Graphic videos shared by locals on social media showed injured tourists lying in pools of blood, while their relatives screamed and pleaded for help. Due to the area’s lack of road access, helicopter services were deployed to evacuate the wounded.

Describing the scene, a local tour guide told the AFP news agency he reached the scene after hearing gunfire and transported some of the wounded away on horseback.

“I saw a few men lying on the ground looking like they were dead,” said Waheed, who gave only one name.

A female survivor told the PTI news agency: “My husband was shot in the head while seven others were also injured in the attack.”

Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media: “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”

Government officials said the dead included tourists from the Indian states of Karnataka, Odisha and Gujarat and two foreign nationals. At least six others were wounded.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, decried the “heinous act” cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia.

“Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice … they will not be spared. Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and will only grow stronger,” said Modi, who met with Vance the day before.

Donald Trump expressed his “full support” to India in a call with Modi late on Tuesday, Delhi’s foreign ministry said.

The scene of the attack was cordoned off as police launched an operation to track down the attackers.

According to local police officials, two to three gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on tourists in the area, which is accessible only by foot or on horseback, before fleeing the scene.

A witness speaking to India Today said: “The shooting occurred right in front of us. At first we thought it was just firecrackers, but when we heard others screaming we rushed out of there to save ourselves.”

Another witness, who also did not reveal his name, said: “We didn’t stop running for four kilometres … I’m still trembling.”

Protests erupted in several areas of the Indian-administered Kashmir condemning the attack, with a rally led by right-wing vigilantes in the city of Jammu blaming Pakistan.

A militant group identifying itself as “Kashmir Resistance” has claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. The group cited anger over Indian settlement of over 85,000 “outsiders”, which it said was driving a “demographic change” in the region.

The mountain region is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, and has been riven by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.

India revoked Kashmir’s special status as an autonomous state in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The move also allowed local authorities to issue domicile rights to outsiders, allowing them to get jobs and buy land in the territory.

Authorities have described the attack as targeted and intended to spread terror among the tourists visiting Kashmir.

Tuesday’s attack seems to be a major shift in the regional conflict where tourists for many years have largely been spared from violence despite a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.

The Baisaran area attracts tens of thousands of Indian tourists daily, especially during the summer months, when temperatures in mainland India soar.

Indian army and paramilitary forces have been deployed to the area to search for the attackers. In recent years, militants have increasingly targeted security forces in the region’s mountainous and forested areas.

Kashmir remains one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world and is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, although each controls only a part. The two countries have fought multiple wars over the region.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will host US and European negotiators for fresh talks about Ukraine on Wednesday amid speculation that Russia has told Washington it might be willing to drop its claim to parts of Ukraine it does not occupy.

The price would include the US making concessions to Moscow such as recognising the 2014 annexation of Crimea, though Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no such proposal had been shared with him by the White House and that his country could not endorse it.

It had been hoped that Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, would attend the talks, but the Department of State said on Tuesday that would no longer be possible and that Keith Kellogg, the White House’s Ukraine envoy, would be present instead.

The meetings in London take place amid European scepticism that the Russian leader is willing to end the war, reinforced by events over Easter weekend, when Ukraine reported of thousands of violations of a short truce announced by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

John Healey, the defence secretary, told the Commons that the UK agreed with Ukraine that the Russian leader’s public pledges were not borne out by military reality.

“Despite President Putin’s promise of a 30-hour pause in fighting, I can confirm that Defence Intelligence [an MoD unit] has found, and I quote ‘no indication that a ceasefire on the frontline was observed over the Easter period’,” he told MPs.

“So, while Putin has said he declared an Easter truce – he broke it. While Putin says he wants peace – he rejected a full ceasefire. And while Putin says he wants to put an end to the fighting – he continues to play for time in negotiations.”

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that Russia had continued to bomb the frontline with first-person view drones over Easter, though he said that the attackers had scaled back the number of operations and did not use long-range weapons.

Healey also said he would meet Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov, “as the government is bringing together US, UK and European ministers and national security advisers to discuss next steps”.

Ukrainian sources indicated that foreign secretary Andrii Sybiha was expected in London to meet Lammy, Kellogg and delegations from France and Germany at meetings expected to last throughout the day.

Healey said the meetings in London would include discussion of “what a ceasefire might look like and how to secure peace in the long term”. Despite nearly three months of talks led by the White House there has been no breakthrough in ending the war.

European officials believe Moscow is not ready to agree to a ceasefire because Putin has not abandoned his efforts to dominate Ukraine while talks between the Kremlin and the White House continue.

Russia has been demanding that Ukraine hand over the entirety of four eastern and southern regions its forces only partly occupy. That would include Kyiv ceding Kherson, which its forces recaptured in November 2022, and Zaporizhzhia city, proposals Ukraine would not be able to accept.

But the FT reported on Tuesday that the Kremlin would soften its demands in direct discussions with the US, and would accept a freezing of the conflict on the frontline if the US that agreed that Crimea, seized by Moscow in 2014, belonged to Russia.

However, Zelenskyy ruled out recognising Crimea as Russian territory. “There is nothing new to mention or discuss. Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea,” he said, pointing out that it would be incompatible with Ukraine’s constitution.

No details of any revised peace plan had been formally shared with Kyiv, Zelenskyy added. He said discussions should take place in the London format, rather than through the media, with the UK, France and the US as participants.

Putin floated on Tuesday that he was open to direct negotiations with Ukraine, which would be the first time the two countries had held peace discussions since spring 2022. This could involve discussing the issue of not striking civilian targets, his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, later added.

Zelenskyy said that he believed Putin wanted the US to give up its attempts to broker a settlement, leaving Russia to pursue its goals via military means, but he insisted he did not want to lose the White House as a strategic ally.

“Russia is the historic enemy of America. I believe the US is the real leader [in the peace process]. We want them to participate and exert pressure on Russia,” he said.

The US is expected to relay Ukraine’s response to Putin after the London meetings. Steve Witkoff, who is a close friend of Donald Trump and his informal envoy, is set to visit Moscow later this week. Witkoff has held three in-depth meetings with Putin, and his apparently warm relationship with the Kremlin has raised concerns in Ukraine that he may be amplifying Russian narratives.

The Kremlin says it is open to direct talks with Ukraine but has declined to back Kyiv’s proposal to extend the Easter ceasefire.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that there were no concrete plans for negotiations on halting strikes against civilian targets, but that the Russian president was willing to discuss this directly with Ukraine if Kyiv removed “certain obstacles”.

While rare, it is not unprecedented for Putin to suggest direct talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking on Tuesday in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to hold direct talks with Russia “in any format”. But he said this could only happen if Moscow first implemented a complete ceasefire – something, he said, it had failed to do over the Easter weekend.

On Friday, Putin announced a 30-hour pause in fighting. Zelenskyy said during this period the Russian army scaled back its military operation, with no long-range strikes and fewer assaults. But it did not observe a genuine ceasefire, and carried out numerous attacks with kamikaze drones, he said.

Russia has frequently claimed it was open to talks with Ukraine but that Kyiv made that legally impossible under a 2022 decree barring negotiations with Putin. The Russian leader has previously suggested Ukraine must hold elections and choose a new president before any such talks could take place.

There have been no official talks between the two sides since the early weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s readiness for immediate discussions to end attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“Our proposal for a ceasefire on civilian objects also remains in force. We need Russia’s serious readiness to talk about it. There are and will be no obstacles on the Ukrainian side,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Putin and Zelenskyy have recently appeared more positive over the prospect of peace talks, probably in response to mounting pressure from the Trump administration, which has said it may abandon its mediation efforts unless progress is made.

Russia also reported a decrease in fighting during the Easter truce, and accused Ukraine of violating the temporary ceasefire.

Speaking on Russian television on Monday, Putin said Russia had a “positive attitude towards any peace initiatives”.

However, he has publicly given no indication he is prepared to back down from some of his extreme demands, including the demilitarisation of Ukraine and full Russian control over the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed in 2022.

The Kremlin on Tuesday also warned that negotiators were unlikely to obtain a swift breakthrough in peace talks on the war.

Ukrainian officials are expected to meet western allies in London on Wednesday for US-led talks on ending the war. The meeting is expected to follow up on last week’s discussions in Paris, where the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, presented Washington’s proposed plan for a resolution to the conflict.

Media reports suggest the US is promoting a “peace deal” that heavily favours Russia. The proposal reportedly includes freezing the conflict along the current 1,000km frontline, recognising Crimea as part of Russia, and a Russian veto over Ukraine joining Nato.

Kyiv is expected to respond to the proposal during the talks in London.

The US is expected to relay Ukraine’s response to Putin, with Steve Witkoff – a close friend of Donald Trump and his informal envoy – set to visit Moscow later this week. Witkoff has previously held three in-depth meetings with Putin, and his relationship with the Kremlin has raised concerns in Ukraine that he may be amplifying Russian narratives.

Zelenskyy said he did not want to lose the US as a strategic ally and said it had a crucial role to play in the peace process. “We are America’s ally. Russia is a historic enemy of the US,” he said. “I believe the US is the real leader. We want them to exert pressure on Russia.”

The funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday at St Peter’s Square, the Vatican said on Tuesday, as a host of world leaders and royals including Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump and the Prince of Wales confirmed their attendance.

The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after a stroke. He had been recovering from double pneumonia for which he was hospitalised for five weeks.

His death certificate, released by the Vatican, said the stroke caused a coma and “irreversible” heart failure.

A Vatican official recounted some of his last moments on Tuesday, saying his death came quickly and he did not suffer. Francis fell ill at about 5.30am on Monday and was attended to by his team of medics. He later fell into a coma and died at 7.35am.

The funeral mass will begin at 10am local time and will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college of cardinals, in what is expected to be a solemn ceremony.

Photographs of Francis’ body, dressed in his vestments, holding a rosary and lying in an open coffin in the chapel of his home at Casa Santa Marta, were released by the Vatican on Tuesday.

His coffin will be taken to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning in a procession led by cardinals. He will remain there until 7pm on Friday, to allow the public to pay their respects. The basilica will remain open until midnight on Wednesday and Thursday.

As confirmed by Francis in his final testament, he will be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

He specified that he wanted to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration” but with the inscription of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

The cost of his burial will be covered by a sum provided by a benefactor, which Francis transferred to the basilica, he wrote in his will.

Popes are usually buried with much fanfare in the grottoes beneath St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, but Francis – loved by many Catholics for his humility – simplified rites for papal funerals last year.

The procession of his coffin from the Vatican to Esquilino, a journey of two or three miles through central Rome, would require the Vatican’s Swiss Guards.

Heads of state and government who have so far confirmed their attendance at the funeral include Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Javier Milei, the president of Francis’s native Argentina. Francis had a delicate relationship with politics in his home country, but Milei hailed his “goodness and wisdom”.

Macron said at a press conference during a visit to Réunion: “We will be present at the pope’s funeral, as is only right.”

Trump, who repeatedly clashed with Francis over immigration, said on Monday that he would be attending with his wife. “Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome. We look forward to being there!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said Francis “prayed for peace in Ukraine”, will attend with his wife Olena Zelenska. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who is subject to an international criminal court arrest warrant over his invasion of Ukraine, will not attend, the Kremlin said.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and António Costa, the president of the European Council, will both travel to Rome, officials said.

Prince William will attend the funeral on behalf of King Charles, Kensington Palace said. Charles and Camilla visited the late pope during a state visit to Italy earlier this month.

Other royal guests include King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, with Felipe calling the 88-year-old pontiff “an enormous ethical beacon of our world, of our time”.

Traditional papal funerals involved three coffins, one made out of cypress wood, one of lead and one of elm, which were placed one inside the other before the body was placed inside and then buried beneath St Peter’s.

But Francis shunned these rituals when he approved the simplified rules in April 2024. People will still be able to see his body in the basilica, but his remains will be placed in one simple coffin made of wood and lined with zinc, and will not be raised on a platform.

Francis almost died twice in February during treatment for severe pneumonia at Gemelli hospital in Rome. He was discharged on 23 March and ordered by doctors to rest for at least two months. Although his work duties were vastly scaled back, he made several appearances in recent weeks, including a visit to St Peter’s Basilica to thank the restorers finishing work on the 17th-century tomb of Pope Urban VIII. On Easter Sunday, he entered St Peter’s Square in the popemobile before giving a blessing from the central balcony of the basilica.

The pontiff’s death is likely to exacerbate divisions within the curia, with conservatives seeking to wrest control of the church away from reformers. A conclave – the secretive process by which Francis’s successor will be chosen – should begin no fewer than 15 and no more than 20 days after the death of the pope.

A panel of Brazil’s supreme court justices has unanimously accepted criminal charges against six more key allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged coup plot to keep him in office after his 2022 election defeat.

Last month, the panel unanimously accepted charges against Bolsonaro and seven close allies over the alleged coup plot following his loss to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and ordered the former rightwing leader to stand trial.

When the prosecutor general, Paulo Gonet, accused Bolsonaro and 33 others of attempting a coup, he divided them into five different groups, based on their roles and positions in the alleged plot.

Bolsonaro and his closest allies, including running mate Gen Braga Netto, were placed in the “core group”, according to the charges. On Tuesday, the supreme court panel reviewed charges against the second group, which Gonet said held managerial roles.

The second group includes the former presidential foreign affairs adviser Filipe Martins, retired Gen Mario Fernandes, former federal highway police director Silvinei Vasques, former presidential aide Col Marcelo Câmara and two federal police officers, Fernando Oliveira and Marilia Alencar.

These individuals coordinated actions planned by the core group, Gonet said in the indictment. These included mobilizing police officers to support the alleged coup, monitoring authorities and drafting a document intended to justify a state of emergency.

Bolsonaro and his allies have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. The former president says that he is being politically persecuted. He has been hospitalized for more than a week, recovering from bowel surgery. On Monday, from his hospital bed in Brasília, he gave an interview to the local television network SBT and said that his trial was not technical, but political.

Under Brazilian law, a coup conviction alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years, but when combined with the other charges, it could result in a sentence of decades behind bars. Bolsonaro is expected to stand trial in the next few months at Brazil’s supreme court.

Israel has quietly stopped designating areas of Gaza as humanitarian zones since it resumed its strikes on the Palestinian territory last month.

The move has heightened fears among aid workers for the safety of civilians sheltering in places previously deemed protected.

A small strip of land in south Gaza was assigned by Israel in December 2023 as a “humanitarian zone” where civilians were told they could safely gather. The area was expanded last May to cover a larger area in south-west Gaza, including Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and al-Mawasi.

Up to January, the humanitarian zone had been marked on maps that were posted online and dropped from the air by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). More than a million people had flocked to the areas as a result.

The humanitarian zones were not entirely safe. Official figures showed they were hit by at least 28 Israeli strikes before January and an investigation by the BBC put the number as high as 97, with 550 people killed. The IDF accused Hamas militants of using the zones as protection and as a launchpad for attacks on Israeli troops.

Mention of the humanitarian zones has disappeared from maps since Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas collapsed in March. The IDF has resumed its airstrikes and seized swathes of land as a “security buffer zone” and the UN estimates that 70% of Gaza is now under either an evacuation order or is a “no-go zone”.

In meetings with aid agencies, the IDF and Cogat – the Israeli government unit coordinating policy in Gaza – have sidestepped questions about humanitarian zones, according to a senior international official who asked not to be named in order to speak freely.

The source added: “[The Israeli authorities] have not indicated if they will reinstate some of the humanitarian zone designations. There’s a logic there: if they don’t reinstate the humanitarian zones, they therefore can’t guarantee security of movement within that zone for aid workers or civilians.”

The IDF did not respond to questions on the issue.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have continued to flock to al-Mawasi, a sandy area with few buildings, many in the belief it is still a protected zone. But the area has been hit by 23 airstrikes since the ceasefire ended, according to the UN.

Last week, two Israeli missiles struck refugee camps in al-Mawasi, setting fire to dozens of tents, many with women and children inside. The attacks killed at least 16 people and wounded many more. “Images of children burning while sheltering in makeshift tents should shake us all to our core,” said Catherine Russell of Unicef.

Nasser, a father of four, sought sanctuary with his family at al-Mawasi after their home in Deir al-Balah was wrecked last year.

“Mawasi was not really better,” said the 35-year-old accountant. “The conditions were crowded, hot, and dirty, there was nowhere to wash or have any privacy. Sometimes there were airstrikes on al-Mawasi when we were displaced there and they set the tents on fire. The Israelis told us to move again even inside the camp.”

The family went back home when the ceasefire was declared but Nasser said it was now clear to everyone in Gaza that nowhere was safe.

“We don’t know what to do,” he added. “I spent all day looking for clean water and firewood to make a fire to boil wastewater. But Mawasi is dangerous too, it has been targeted 20 times in the last month and there were many martyrs.”

The UN warned on Tuesday that Gaza was facing famine after more than 50 days of a total Israeli blockade on aid entering the territory. Also on Tuesday, Israel airstrikes killed 17 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, described Gaza as a “land of desperation”.

“Hunger is spreading and deepening, deliberate and manmade,” said Lazzarini on Tuesday. He said the 2 million people of Gaza were “undergoing collective punishment” and he charged Israel with using humanitarian aid as “a bargaining chip and a weapon of war”.

His comments were echoed by Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, who told reporters on Tuesday: “It is true that right now is probably the worst humanitarian situation we have seen throughout the war in Gaza.”

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has proposed a sweeping reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.

If approved, the reorganisation would cut more than 700 positions and eliminate 132 of 734 offices, according to state department officials. But those officials also stressed that the plan, which was suddenly announced on Tuesday, remained a proposal and would not lead to immediate layoffs or cuts.

Other reports on Tuesday leaked through the conservative news outlet the Free Press said that Rubio was planning to request an across-the-board 15% reduction in personnel. That would mark the largest cut in the diplomatic corps in decades, although it is less drastic than draft proposals that had been circulated and a report from the White House’s office of management and budget that suggested a 50% cut in the department’s budget.

“The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests,” Rubio said in a statement. “That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department in to the 21st Century.”

The reorganisation may be followed by other announcements on staffing and cuts, a department official said, that would close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimise offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them into regional bureaus.

“Our organisational chart has become bloated … with the priorities of past administrations,” said a senior state department official. “This is an attempt to go back to the traditional roots of the state department … to the primacy of the regional bureaus and of our foreign missions.

“The state department will lose relevance if it cannot turn things around in an expeditious manner,” the official said.

In his remarks, Rubio wrote that he was targeting departments that were involved in the global promotion of democracy and human rights, writing that the expansive “domain … provided a fertile environment for activists to redefine ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ and to pursue their projects at the taxpayer expense.

“The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes,” Rubio wrote. “The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border.”

Yet a number of state department staffers said the cuts were less severe than expected and that key information had not yet been released on how many jobs may be cut. “There is no information on [personnel] cuts”, which is “what most people are waiting for”, said one state department employee.

One draft executive order shared with the Guardian and previously reported on by the New York Times would have eliminated almost all of its Africa operations and shut down embassies and consulates across the continent.

Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said that she would “scrutinise” the reorganisation and that she would “hold Rubio to his pledge” to appear before the committee and engage with Congress on the future of the state department.

“Any changes to the state department and USAID must be carefully weighed with the real costs to American security and leadership,” she said. “When America retreats – as it has under President Trump – China and Russia fill the void. A strong and mission-ready state department advances American national security interests, opens up new markets for American workers and companies and promotes global peace and stability.”

Tammy Bruce, the department spokesperson, denied on Tuesday that the billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” was in charge of the reorganisation, but said that Doge’s approach had informed the proposal.

“We know the American people love the result of Doge,” she said, when asked whether Musk’s department was directly involved. “Doge was not in charge of this, but this is the result of what we’ve learned, and the fact that we appreciate the results, and we want more of those results.”

Tesla saw a 9% drop in revenue year over year in the first quarter of 2025. The company brought in $19.3bn in revenue, well below Wall Street expectations of $21.45bn. The company reported an earnings per share of 27 cents, also well under investor expectations of 43 cents in earnings per share. Company sales plummeted in the first three months of the year. The company suffered a 13% drop in sales, making it the company’s worst quarter since 2022. Tesla closed the quarter with 336,681 vehicles delivered.

Despite missing Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom line, initial analyst reactions are optimistic given many had significantly lowered their expectations after the company reported a massive dip in vehicle deliveries.

“Against the backdrop of catastrophic expectations, with everything from sales to margins projected to continue the slump, the less-than-bad numbers have been received as welcome news by Tesla investors,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. “In a curious turn of events, it’s as if numbers show that even at the worst moment, Elon and the team’s operation can still bring a robust $19.3bn in revenue, with total revenue partly making up for the huge drop in auto revenue.

“If this is the worst it gets for Tesla, then certainly there must be some upside for the stock once tailwinds, such as the highly awaited cheaper model and the Robotaxi, finally hit the market later this year,” Monteiro continued.

Analysts attribute the company’s overall difficulties to a number of factors, but ultimately conclude Elon Musk’s role in the White House has caused a branding crisis for Tesla. The company is at a major crossroads, analysts say, that will only be remedied if Musk leaves his role in the so-called “department of government efficiency” and returns to Tesla as CEO full time.

Musk is scheduled to leave Doge on May 30, a strict 130-day cap on his service as a special government employee.

In addition to a drop in sales, a 50% dip in share prices, existing Tesla owners are looking to sell their vehicles in droves, Teslas have been vandalized across the country and in response to ongoing protests of the automaker, the Vancouver International Auto show removed the electronic carmaker from its March lineup. The company also recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks – nearly all that had been sold.

“If Musk leaves the White House there will be permanent brand damage…but Tesla will have its most important asset and strategic thinker back as full time CEO to drive the vision and the long term story will not be altered,” read a Wedbush Securities analyst note. Wedbush remained bullish on the company’s chances of turning its financials around. “IF Musk chooses to stay with the Trump White House it could change the future of Tesla/brand damage will grow.”

The company declined to provide forward-looking guidance for the next quarter citing “shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains”.

“While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment,” the earnings report reads. “We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.”

The company did warn, however, that “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully impact short-term demand for Tesla products.

Though Musk has acknowledged there have been “rocky moments” of late, he remained optimistic about the company’s future at a March company all-hands meeting where he urged employees to hold onto their stocks.

“But what I’m here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting, and we’re going to do things that no one has even dreamed of,” Musk told employees.

Analysts are looking to hear more about Musk’s role in the White House and how tariffs will affect the company’s production, but many investors had already lowered their expectations in anticipation of a tough quarterly report.

“At this point the Street has already cut 2025 deliveries from the 2 million/1.9 million level to 1.7 million/1.65 million and EPS is now around $2 and could go lower,” the Wedbush analyst note read.

Teenagers who go to bed earlier and sleep for longer than their peers tend to have sharper mental skills and score better on cognitive tests, researchers have said.

A study of more than 3,000 adolescents showed that those who turned in earliest, slept the longest, and had the lowest sleeping heart rates outperformed others on reading, vocabulary, problem solving and other mental tests.

The researchers expected teenagers with healthy sleeping habits to score better than those who slept poorly, but were surprised at the impact that even small differences in sleep made.

“We think that it’s the sleep driving the better cognitive abilities, in part because we consolidate our memories during sleep,” said Barbara Sahakian, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge.

A good night’s rest has long been linked to better mental performance, but researchers are still teasing apart what happens in adolescence when crucial brain development coincides with a shift towards later bedtimes and less sleep overall.

Sahakian’s team and researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai analysed data from 3,222 young people in the adolescent brain cognitive development study, the largest long-term investigation into brain development and child health in the US. Those who took part had brain scans, cognitive tests, and tracked their sleep using Fitbits.

Even those with the best sleeping habits got less sleep than experts recommend, the study found. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 13- to 18-year-olds should have eight to 10 hours sleep per night.

The teenagers fell into three distinct groups. The first, about 39%, went to bed the latest and woke the earliest, sleeping on average seven hours and 10 minutes a night. The second group, about 24%, slept for seven hours and 21 minutes on average. The third, about 37%, went to bed the earliest, slept the longest, and had the lowest sleeping heart rates. They slept about seven hours and 25 minutes.

While there were no meaningful differences in the educational achievements of the different groups, those in group three scored highest on cognitive tests, followed by group two, and group one scored the worst. Brain scans showed that those in group three had the largest brain volumes and best brain functions. Details are published in Cell Reports.

Sahakian said it was “surprising” that minor differences in sleep had such an impact, adding: “It suggests that small differences in sleep amounts accrue over time to make a big difference in outcomes.”

For teenagers who want to improve their sleep and boost mental skills, Sahakian recommends regular exercise to help with sleep, and not using mobile phones or computers late in the evening.

Colin Espie, a professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study, said: “One of the consequences of having highly evolved brains, that can perform complex tasks, is that as humans we are particularly dependent on sleep, not least in the developing years.

“As this research shows, falling asleep late and getting less sleep is problematic. No doubt this is exacerbated on school days when young people need to get up relatively early for school, and play catchup on the weekends – a phenomenon known as social jet lag.”

He added: “We would do well as a society to place more emphasis on sleep by, for example, incorporating more sleep health content into personal and social education at secondary school.” Oxford’s Teensleep project proposes ways to help teenagers improve their sleep health.

Gareth Gaskell, a professor of psychology at the University of York, welcomed the focus on early adolescence. “I would like to see more in the way of intervention studies during adolescence so we can find out how to help adolescents that might have suboptimal sleep patterns. Often, quite simple changes can be made to the bedtime routine, for example around screen use, to improve the timing and duration of sleep.”