At least nine people have been killed and more than 70 injured in Kyiv after Russia carried out one of the most devastating air attacks against Ukraine for months, with Kharkiv and other cities also targeted.

Waves of drones as well as ballistic and guided missiles struck the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. There were explosions for much of the night, beginning at about 1am local time, and the rattle of anti-aircraft fire as Ukrainian defences tried to shoot the missiles down.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said rescuers were pulling survivors from under the rubble. The injured included six children and a pregnant woman. A house, cars, and other buildings were set on fire, with extensive damage caused by falling debris in several districts, he said.

“Russia has launched a massive combined strike on Kyiv,” Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram. “According to preliminary data, nine people were killed, 63 injured.”

Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a big rescue operation was under way in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kyiv, involving dogs and engineering teams. “Mobile phones can be heard ringing under the ruins. The search will continue until everybody is got out. We have information about two children who cannot be found at the scene of the incident,” he added.

On Wednesday evening, drones could be seen buzzing in the sky above the north-east Kharkiv region and flying over a forest. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was hit by seven missiles and 12 kamikaze drones in strikes throughout the night as black smoke plumed overhead.

According to Kharkiv’s mayor, several private houses, a factory and a high-rise apartment block were hit. “One of the most recent strikes hit a densely populated residential area. Two people were injured there,” Ihor Terekhov said, urging people to be careful.

The onslaught came as Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to support a US “peace plan”, in which Crimea and other Ukrainian territories would be handed to Russia.

On Wednesday, Trump accused Ukraine’s president of prolonging the “killing field” and making “very harmful” statements. Zelenskyy has ruled out recognising Crimea as Russian and says a complete ceasefire is needed before any settlement can be discussed.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, said Russia’s “maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace”.

He added: “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied. Putin demonstrates through his actions, not words, that he does not respect any peace efforts and only wants to continue the war. Weakness and concessions will not stop his terror and aggression. Only strength and pressure will.”

Posting on social media, as Russian bombs fell around them, Ukrainians criticised Trump’s one-sided approach and his apparent indifference to Ukrainian civilian casualties. The massive attack suggested the Kremlin was not remotely interested in peace, they suggested.

Olga Rudenko, the editor of the Kyiv Independent newspaper, wrote on social media: “Can’t begin to explain how surreal it is to be sitting on the floor in the safest place of my apartment hearing an extremely loud Russian missile+drone attack – after having spent entire day discussing and editing coverage of the US effectively demanding Ukraine’s surrender.”

Euan MacDonald, a freelance journalist, added: “Great big bang in Kyiv, and another – incoming missiles. Shaheds also in city, just heard anti-aircraft guns. And two more big bangs just as I write … Not been this noisy for a while …”

There were further attacks in the cities of Pavlohrad and Zhytomyr, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In Kyiv some residents spent a sleepless night in the subway, which doubles as a missile shelter. According to the photographer Kostyantyn Liberov, Shahed drones struck the same district twice as rescuers and civilians were trying to free a young woman who was trapped in a collapsed building.

“Honey, we’ll get you out no matter what. We’re right here,” one of the rescuers reassured her, as the loud roar of a Shahed drone buzzed overhead, Liberov reported.

The videographer Anton Shtuka, who filmed the difficult rescue operation, said: “Sometimes it looks like these strikes hit our homes because [Vladimir] Putin feels US support and begins to pressure Ukraine even more.” He added, ironically: “Thank you, partners.”

Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April when at least three people were hurt. It has been the target of sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenksyy’s office said: “Putin shows only a desire to kill. The attacks on civilians must stop.”

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines.

It was unclear how Ukraine and its European allies, who were meeting in London on Wednesday, would respond to a plan largely constructed in their absence. Zelenskyy countered by proposing a simple ceasefire without conditions on both sides, though this did not immediately gain any traction from the US.

But after a day of speculation and partial disclosure of the terms of the peace proposal, Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart for complaining that Kyiv was unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia – the most contentious aspect of the tentative agreement that has leaked so far.

The US president wrote on social media that “Crimea was lost years ago” in 2014, when Barack Obama was president, and its control “is not even a point of discussion”, an apparent reference to the fact that Ukraine has been unable to recapture it in the three-year war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Reports that Washington would be willing to recognise Crimea under Russian control have been circulating for a couple of days. That prompted Zelenskyy to say on Tuesday that “Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea”, arguing that doing so it would be incompatible with the country’s constitution.

Responding to a report of his comments, Trump wrote on Wednesday that “this statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia” and accused the Ukrainian leader of making “inflammatory statements” that “makes it so difficult to settle this War”.

“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory,” Trump wrote, implying that US was willing to do so, before accusing Ukraine of failing to defend Crimea. “If he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”

Later, Trump said he thought Russia had agreed to a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy now the holdout.

“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far it’s been harder.”

Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea in March 2014 during a political crisis in Ukraine after the ousting of the country’s pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych. Gunmen seized the regional parliament and airports, and in a subsequent referendum 97% voted to join Russia. The poll was not recognised as legal by the US, UK or EU.

Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said that US recognition of Russia’s control of Crimea would be a “de jure recognition of territory taken by force” and amount to “actively endorsing the Russian position in opposition to the European position and Ukrainian politics”.

A Ukraine peace summit in London was hastily downgraded on Wednesday morning after Washington said the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would not be travelling the evening before. Hosted by the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, the meeting was said to be taking place at the level of officials instead.

Downing Street said it had consisted of substantive technical meetings on how to stop the fighting, with Washington’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg; Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and national security advisers from France and Germany among those present.

Vance had earlier called on Ukraine and Russia to accept a US-led peace proposal and threatened that Washington would abandon its effort to end the war – a Trump campaign promise – if it was not accepted.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance said.

The US proposal would mean “we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”, Vance said, though he added there should be some adjustments. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

A ceasefire on the current frontlines has already been accepted in principle by Ukraine and Zelenskyy called again for an immediate halt to the three-year war. “In Ukraine, we insist on an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire,” he said, adding that “stopping the killings is the number one task”.

Early on Thursday, a missile attack in Kyiv killed at least two people and wounded 54, the capital’s mayor said. Thirty-eight of the injured – including six children – were hospitalised, Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Nine people were reportedly killed early on Wednesday when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets – one of 134 large drones that Ukrainian authorities reported had attacked the country overnight.

Though Ukraine has indicated it is willing to accept de facto Russian occupation of about a fifth of its territory, arguing that it will reunite the country by diplomatic means eventually, it has refused to accept what would be a domestically unpopular partition by accepting Russia’s formal control of Crimea, even if the recognition came from the US.

Other anticipated elements of the deal are that Ukraine would be prevented by a US veto from joining Nato, a point largely accepted by a reluctant Kyiv. Another, that future security guarantees would be provided by a UK and French-led “coalition of the willing” made up of 30 countries, has not been accepted by Russia.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia continued to oppose the presence of European peacekeeping forces, which Ukraine sees as the only viable alternative to Nato membership for ensuring its security.

Peskov said there were “many nuances” surrounding negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine and that the positions of the various parties involved had yet to be brought closer – suggesting, from a Russian perspective, that the deal was not yet agreed.

Initial reports on Tuesday had suggested Russia was willing to trade territory it does not control in Ukraine – in effect, fresh air – for a US recognition of its seizure of Crimea, in what would be a formal acknowledgment that it is possible to change borders by force, creating an extraordinary post-second world war precedent.

Russia may be banking on the idea that Ukraine is weary after more than three years of war and that its proposal is a reasonable counter to western suggestions, backed by the US, Ukraine and Europe, that there should be an immediate and full ceasefire to allow other wider negotiations to take place.

The contours of the White House’s “final” peace proposal to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine have come into focus with proposals to freeze the frontlines in exchange for terms that critics have termed a surrender to Russian interests in the the three-year-old conflict.

Three people with knowledge of the talks told the Guardian that Vladimir Putin had signalled a readiness to effectively freeze the frontlines of the conflict in exchange for numerous concessions, including US recognition of Russian control of Crimea and considerable US sanctions relief. The Financial Times first reported Putin’s proposal on Tuesday.

The vice-president, JD Vance, confirmed on Wednesday that the US would seek to “freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”. Some territory could change hands, he said.

“The current lines, or somewhere close to them, is where you’re ultimately … going to draw the new lines in the conflict,” he said. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

But reports of the US proposal do not include other Kremlin demands, including a limit on the future size of the Ukrainian military or a ban on foreign troops in the country. Russia had listed concerns over Ukraine’s military and foreign backing as among its “root causes” for launching its 2022 full-scale invasion.

A draft version of the White House proposal seen by Axios reported that Russia would receive de jure recognition of Moscow’s control of Crimea, de facto recognition of Russia’s occupation of much of eastern Ukraine, and a promise that Ukraine would not become a member of Nato (although it could join the EU).

Russia could also receive sanctions relief for its energy sector, enabling the Kremlin to increase vital revenue flows that have been impeded since the invasion.

Ukraine, in turn, would receive a “robust security guarantee” from an ad hoc group of European nations, although the draft did not describe how a peacekeeping force would operate or whether the US would take part. Ukraine would also be promised unimpeded passage on the Dnipro River and some territory in the Kharkiv region, along with vaguely defined pledges for future financial support for rebuilding.

Senior Russian officials have said Moscow will not take part in talks that include discussions of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine. “Russia is still against [the presence of European peacekeepers],” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday. “That would be de facto Nato forces and resources on the territory of Ukraine. It was one of the main reasons for the start of the special military operation.”

The US decision to recognise Crimea would be politically contentious in Ukraine and would mark a turning point in US postwar policy, with the White House effectively endorsing a Russian effort to redraw the borders of Europe by force.

The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said this week that Ukraine “will not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea … There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”

Donald Trump reacted angrily to Zelenskyy’s remarks on Wednesday, calling them “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia”.

“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” he wrote.

“The situation for Ukraine is dire,” he said. Zelenskyy “can have peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country”.

Moscow also appears to be eyeing the deal favourably. “There is a chance to make a deal,” said one source close to the Kremlin. “But they could also miss that chance.”

A draft of the plan seen by Axios, as well as the Telegraph, said that Ukraine would retain control over the Zaporizhzhia power plant but it would be managed by the US, which would supply electricity to both Ukraine and Russia.

India has summoned Pakistan’s top diplomat in Delhi after announcing a series of measures to downgrade ties with Islamabad after a deadly militant attack in Kashmir, an Indian diplomatic source has told the Guardian. Local media carried similar reports.

Saad Ahmad Warraich, the charge d’affaires at the Pakistan embassy, was summoned late on Wednesday night by the ministry of external affairs, according to a senior ministry official who was not authorised to speak to the media.

Warraich, Pakistan’s highest-ranking diplomat in Delhi, was summoned after India closed a key land border with Pakistan, suspended a water-sharing treaty, and barred Pakistani citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme. These steps followed Tuesday’s militant attack in Kashmir, which killed 26 tourists.

The late-night summoning of Pakistan’s top diplomat reflected India’s “anguish” over the attack, the official said. “We raised our concerns and formally notified the measures India has taken in the wake of the terror attack.”

On Wednesday, India also announced it would withdraw its defence attaches from Pakistan, reduce its mission staff in Islamabad from 55 to 30 and declare Pakistan’s defence personnel persona non grata.

According to the diplomatic source and local media, the Pakistani diplomat was informed that all defence advisers at the country’s mission in New Delhi had been declared persona non grata and were expected to leave within a week.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has called for an all-party meeting with opposition parties on Thursday, to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

In Islamabad, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was scheduled to hold a meeting of the national security committee to discuss Pakistan’s response, the foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, posted on X.

The Indus water treaty, mediated by the World Bank, splits the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbours and regulates the sharing of water. It had until now withstood wars between the neighbours.

India would hold the treaty in abeyance, the Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, said.

Diplomatic ties between the two nuclear-armed rivals were weak even before the latest measures were announced, as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in Delhi after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

Indian security forces fanned out across the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Wednesday as the army and police launched a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack.

Amid rapidly rising tensions in the region, which has been riven by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989, survivors said the militants had asked men they had rounded up to recite Islamic verses before executing those who could not.

A little-known militant group, the Kashmir Resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack. Posting on social media, it expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change”.

Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party have projected as a huge achievement in revoking the special status that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed, and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

Reuters contributed to this report

India has closed a key land border with Pakistan, cancelled a water-sharing treaty and barred Pakistan’s citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme after Tuesday’s attack by Islamic militants in Kashmir that killed 26 tourists.

India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, said those who carried out and planned the Kashmir region’s worst attack on civilians in years, including those “behind the scenes”, would see a swift response.

Announcing the downgrading of relations with Pakistan, the Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, told a media briefing that cross-border connections to the attack had been “brought out” at a special meeting of the security cabinet, after which it was decided to act.

Misri said India was suspending the Indus water treaty “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism”. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack and said its prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, would chair a national security committee meeting on Thursday to respond.

Indian security forces fanned out across the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Wednesday as the army and police launched a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack on Tuesday that killed at least 26 tourists, all men.

Amid rapidly rising tensions in the region, which has been riven by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989, survivors said the militants had asked men they had rounded up to recite Islamic verses before executing those who couldn’t.

Asavari Jagdale, from India’s western state of Maharashtra, who lost her father and uncle in the attack, told local media that she and her family hid inside a nearby tent along with other tourists when the shooting started.

When the militants reached their tent, Asavari said, they asked her father, Santosh Jagdale, to come out and recite an Islamic verse. “When he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one on the head, one behind the ear and another in the back,” she said. “My uncle was next to me. The terrorists fired four to five bullets into him.”

Debasish Bhattacharyya, a Hindu who teaches at Assam University and who grew up in a Muslim neighbourhood in the state, told Reuters he had been spared because he was familiar with Islamic verses.

The militants ordered him and those nearby on to their knees and when the others started chanting the verses, he followed along.

“I knew the words and at that moment it was probably the only way to save our lives. Those who failed were killed,” he said, adding that they fled when the gunmen left, and trekked through a forest for two hours.

A little-known militant group, the Kashmir Resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack. Posting on social media, it expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change”.

The attack, reportedly involving four gunmen, took place in a meadow in the Pahalgam area of the scenic Himalayan federal territory. The dead were 25 Indians and one Nepalese national. It was the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings.

The prime minister, Narendra Modi, cut short a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to Delhi on Wednesday morning. He held a meeting with his national security adviser, the foreign minister and other senior officials at the airport, and a special security cabinet meeting was called for later on Wednesday.

The incident is being viewed as a major escalation in the regional conflict, in which attacks targeting tourists have been rare. The last deadly attack took place in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after militants caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge.

The Kashmir Resistance claimed those attacked on Tuesday “were not ordinary tourists; instead, they were linked to and affiliated with Indian security agencies”.

The attack prompted an immediate exodus of tourists from the region, with airlines operating extra flights from Srinagar, the summer capital of the territory. Local television showed tourists carrying their bags to taxis and filing out of a hotel in Srinagar.

“How can we continue our trip in such a situation?” Sameer Bhardwaj, a tourist from Delhi, said to the news agency ANI. “We need to prioritise our safety. We can only travel if our minds are relaxed but everyone is tense here. So we cannot continue to travel.”

Gulzar Ahmad, a taxi driver in Pahalgam, said: “This attack will impact our work but we are more concerned about the loss of lives. No matter what we do in the future, our tourism industry has been stained by this attack. The perpetrators must receive exemplary punishment so that no one dares to commit such an act again.”

The attack occurred during a four-day visit to India by the US vice-president, JD Vance, who called it a “devastating terrorist attack”.

Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, posted on social media: “It’s heartbreaking to see the exodus of our guests from the [Kashmir] valley after yesterday’s tragic terror attack in Pahalgam. But at the same time, we totally understand why people would want to leave.”

There has been an increase in the number of targeted killings of Hindus, including migrant workers from other Indian states, in the disputed Himalayan region since Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party government unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019 by imposing a communication blockade and jailing activists and political leaders.

It split the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – and allowed local authorities to issue domicile certificates to outsiders, enabling them to apply for jobs and buy land. Since then, civil liberties and media freedom in the region have been severely curtailed.

Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson, Shafqat Khan, issued a statement saying Pakistan was “concerned about the loss of tourists’ lives in the attack”, and extended condolences to the victims.

Thousands of people queued for hours under the hot spring sun in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday to pay their final respects to Pope Francis, whose simple wooden coffin has been placed on the main altar of the 16th-century basilica, where he will lie in state until Friday evening.

The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in Casa Santa Marta on Monday aged 88 after a stroke and subsequent heart failure. He had been recovering from double pneumonia, which had kept him in hospital for five weeks.

In keeping with his requests for simple funeral rites, Francis was dressed in his vestments, holding a rosary, with his open casket lined with red cloth.

Unlike those of most of his predecessors, his coffin, which is being watched over by two Swiss Guards, has not been raised on a platform. That was one of the rituals Francis shunned when he simplified rules for papal funerals last year.

His funeral mass will take place at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning, an event that will be attended by a host of world leaders and royals, including the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president, Donald Trump, and Prince William. He will then be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

On Wednesday morning, mourners erupted into a prolonged but sombre applause as Francis’s coffin was carried through the square by pallbearers in a solemn procession involving dozens of cardinals and bishops, and watched over by Swiss Guards.

The bells of the basilica gently tolled as a choir chanted psalms and prayers in Latin, repeating the call to “pray for us”.

“It was the most profound moment,” said Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, the former archbishop of Toronto, who was among the procession. “But from the simple prayers to the incense, it was no different to a [funeral] ritual that any baptised person would have.”

As of Wednesday night, a Vatican official said almost 20,000 people, from all parts of the world, had joined the queue, which stretched along the road leading to Vatican City, to pay their respects to Francis, many holding umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

Braced for a long wait, Abigail and her family, from California, brought food. “We’re happy to wait as long as it takes,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be here.”

It was only a few days ago that Francis had made his way through St Peter’s Square aboard the popemobile before appearing on the basilica’s central balcony to give a blessing to the crowds gathered for Easter Sunday mass. It was his final public appearance.

Even though people were aware that Francis was seriously ill, some of those waiting in the queue to pay tribute were still struggling to digest the fact of his death.

“It feels strange that he is no longer with us,” said Piotr Grzeszyk, from Poland.

Their shoulders wrapped with the flag of Francis’s native Argentina, Vicky Cabral and her family arrived in Rome from Buenos Aires on Saturday and saw Francis on the balcony the next day.

They had been hoping to get another glimpse of him during the now suspended canonisation of Carlo Acutis, which had been due to take place on 27 April.

“We came to Italy for the Catholic jubilee year and for Carlo Acutis,” said Cabral. “But it now feels like a real blessing to be here for this special moment. Francis was a great pope and I think he should be made a saint too.”

Once through the huge bronze doors and inside the cavernous basilica, pilgrims fell silent as they shuffled slowly towards the altar.

Francesco Catini, who travelled to Rome from Venice, had waited for four hours to see Francis’s body. “It was a beautiful experience,” he said. “To me, Francis was a living example of peace, of love, and especially of humility and solidarity.”

Chiara Frassine, from Brescia in northern Italy, had waited a similar amount of time. “I’m very happy to be here,” she said as she left the basilica. “Pope Francis had a pure soul. He was a humble point of reference for many people, not just Catholics.”

Not everyone waiting to pay their respects was Catholic. Standing at the end of the queue was Gunnar Prieß, from Germany, who arrived in the Italian capital on Wednesday morning.

“I booked a flight only to be here to see this,” he said. “I am not Catholic, but this is so majestic. What we’re seeing here today is the expression of a holy ritual that goes back 2,000 years. There’s an aura in the Vatican and I wanted to experience it.”

As the funeral rituals continue, speculation is rife about who will succeed Francis. Some 103 cardinals met on Wednesday evening and approved nine days of mourning from the date of the funeral, with a conclave – the secret election process to choose a new pope – therefore not expected to begin before 5 May.

There is no clear frontrunner, although Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, who were among the procession, are early favourites.

Collins will be involved in the conclave too and, at 78, will be among the 135 cardinals eligible to vote. But he declined to give any hint of who he thought might succeed Francis.

Irish-language rap group Kneecap have responded to criticism of statements they made about Israel during their Coachella performance on the weekend, saying that statements are “not aggressive” in comparison to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

During their second set at the Coachella music festival in California on 18 April, the rap group, known for their political performances and support of Palestine, led the crowd in chants of “free, free Palestine”. Messages displayed on the stage’s screens during their set read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” Another read: “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.”

During the set, Kneecap member Mo Chara also criticised Israel’s bombing of Gaza, saying: “The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It’s their fucking home and they’re bombing them from the skies. If you’re not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?”

In the wake of their performance, TV presenter Sharon Osbourne criticised the band’s incorporation of “aggressive political statements” into its set, accusing it of hate speech and saying its US working visas should be revoked. Fox News commentators also condemned the band, comparing the comments made during its Coachella set to Nazi Germany.

Asked by BBC News Northern Ireland for their response to Osborne’s comments, Kneecap replied: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”

Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ the band had received death threats following their performance at Coachella and described the threats as “too severe to get into”. On social media the band have also been sharing messages of support they have received.

The trio, Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara from Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Derry, have built a large following in the US. On Thursday, they announced they have sold out their entire October tour of Canada and the US.

In a statement to BBC News Northern Ireland, the US State Department said that when considering revoking work visas, they look at information that “may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under US immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted”.

The daughter of the French prime minister, François Bayrou, has said she was brutally beaten at a private Catholic school at the centre of a growing sexual abuse scandal that has shocked France.

Hélène Perlant, 53, told Paris Match that a senior priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram beat her in front of her peers during a summer camp in the 1980s, when she was 14, but said she had never told Bayrou.

The Bétharram scandal, which has been growing for several months, has shaken the prime minister’s position. He faces questions over whether he knew about decades of alleged widespread violence and sexual abuse at the school and did not act.

Bayrou, a former education minister who has been a local politician in the south-west area near the school for many years, had three of his children at the school, and his wife taught catechism there. He has repeatedly denied any knowledge of abuse allegations.

Perlant, whose story is part of a book by survivors to be published this week, said: “One night when we were unpacking our sleeping bags, [Father] Lartiguet suddenly grabbed me by the hair, dragged me across the floor for several metres, then punched and kicked me all over, especially in the stomach … I wet myself and stayed like that all night, damp and rolled up in a ball in my sleeping bag.”

She added: “Bétharram was organised like a sect or a totalitarian regime putting psychological pressure on pupils and teachers so they stayed silent.”

Perlant told Paris Match that she had never said anything to her father about what had happened. “I kept quiet about it for 30 years,” she said. “Perhaps unconsciously I wanted to protect my father from political blows he was receiving locally.”

In total, 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff at Bétharram of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004. Ninety of these complaints allege sexual violence, including one that alleges group rape by two priests. Two complaints led to charges against a former supervisor over alleged sexual assault of a minor in 2004 and alleged rape of a minor from 1991 to 1994. Some other accusations have passed the time limit for prosecution.

Leftwing lawmakers told parliament in February that Bayrou must have been aware of widespread physical and sexual abuse as early as the 1990s, when he was education minister and when he also served as a local politician. The MP Paul Vannier, of the left party France Unbowed (La France Insoumise), said in parliament: “Prime minister, you lied to MPs to hide your knowledge of violence against children which your responsibilities [at the time] meant you should have denounced.”

Bayrou replied: “I was never informed of anything to do with violence, or sexual violence.” He also said in parliament that people were cooking up an “artificial controversy” against him.

Three of Bayrou’s six children were educated at Bétharram. For several decades, Bayrou held local political and municipal roles in the area. Since 2014 he has been mayor of the nearby town of Pau, where he continues to hold office.

This month the parliamentary commission heard two testimonies under oath that contradicted Bayrou’s assertion that he had no knowledge about allegations concerning the Bétharram school.

Alain Hontangs, an investigator who in 1998 examined an allegation of rape against a priest who had been school principal, said under oath that a judge had informed him the investigation was being delayed because Bayrou, who was then president of the local council, had intervened.

The judge, Christian Mirande, confirmed that he had discussed the allegations of rape with Bayrou, but said he did not remember speaking to the investigator about it. Mirande told the commission he trusted Hontangs’ account.

Bayrou told TV reporters: “I have never intervened in any legal case.”

Bayrou will be questioned by the parliamentary commission on 14 May.

The daughter of the French prime minister, François Bayrou, has said she was brutally beaten at a private Catholic school at the centre of a growing sexual abuse scandal that has shocked France.

Hélène Perlant, 53, told Paris Match that a senior priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram beat her in front of her peers during a summer camp in the 1980s, when she was 14, but said she had never told Bayrou.

The Bétharram scandal, which has been growing for several months, has shaken the prime minister’s position. He faces questions over whether he knew about decades of alleged widespread violence and sexual abuse at the school and did not act.

Bayrou, a former education minister who has been a local politician in the south-west area near the school for many years, had three of his children at the school, and his wife taught catechism there. He has repeatedly denied any knowledge of abuse allegations.

Perlant, whose story is part of a book by survivors to be published this week, said: “One night when we were unpacking our sleeping bags, [Father] Lartiguet suddenly grabbed me by the hair, dragged me across the floor for several metres, then punched and kicked me all over, especially in the stomach … I wet myself and stayed like that all night, damp and rolled up in a ball in my sleeping bag.”

She added: “Bétharram was organised like a sect or a totalitarian regime putting psychological pressure on pupils and teachers so they stayed silent.”

Perlant told Paris Match that she had never said anything to her father about what had happened. “I kept quiet about it for 30 years,” she said. “Perhaps unconsciously I wanted to protect my father from political blows he was receiving locally.”

In total, 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff at Bétharram of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004. Ninety of these complaints allege sexual violence, including one that alleges group rape by two priests. Two complaints led to charges against a former supervisor over alleged sexual assault of a minor in 2004 and alleged rape of a minor from 1991 to 1994. Some other accusations have passed the time limit for prosecution.

Leftwing lawmakers told parliament in February that Bayrou must have been aware of widespread physical and sexual abuse as early as the 1990s, when he was education minister and when he also served as a local politician. The MP Paul Vannier, of the left party France Unbowed (La France Insoumise), said in parliament: “Prime minister, you lied to MPs to hide your knowledge of violence against children which your responsibilities [at the time] meant you should have denounced.”

Bayrou replied: “I was never informed of anything to do with violence, or sexual violence.” He also said in parliament that people were cooking up an “artificial controversy” against him.

Three of Bayrou’s six children were educated at Bétharram. For several decades, Bayrou held local political and municipal roles in the area. Since 2014 he has been mayor of the nearby town of Pau, where he continues to hold office.

This month the parliamentary commission heard two testimonies under oath that contradicted Bayrou’s assertion that he had no knowledge about allegations concerning the Bétharram school.

Alain Hontangs, an investigator who in 1998 examined an allegation of rape against a priest who had been school principal, said under oath that a judge had informed him the investigation was being delayed because Bayrou, who was then president of the local council, had intervened.

The judge, Christian Mirande, confirmed that he had discussed the allegations of rape with Bayrou, but said he did not remember speaking to the investigator about it. Mirande told the commission he trusted Hontangs’ account.

Bayrou told TV reporters: “I have never intervened in any legal case.”

Bayrou will be questioned by the parliamentary commission on 14 May.

At least 25 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, including 11 in the bombing of a school turned shelter, the strip’s civil defence agency said, as Israel’s war against Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory grinds on despite a new ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators.

Intense Israeli bombings hit several areas of Gaza on Wednesday, killing 11 in a school sheltering displaced people in al-Tuffah, a neighbourhood of Gaza City. The strike ignited a huge fire that claimed most of the casualties, said a civil defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal.

The Qatari network Al Jazeera and Palestinian media broadcast footage of several bodies wrapped in white shrouds at al-Shifa hospital’s morgue, and women weeping over the body of a child.

“We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire,” a witness, Umm Mohammed al-Hwaiti, told Reuters.

“People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred [people], charred children, and were walking and saying ‘dear God, dear God, we have no one but you’. What can we say? Dear God, only,” she said.

Unusually, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the school attack. Israeli officials say fighters from Hamas and allied factions hide behind civilian infrastructure, claims that the Palestinian militant group denies.

Israel has renewed its aerial and ground campaign since the collapse of a two-month-old ceasefire and hostage and prisoner release swap in mid-March. Since then, according to the UN, nearly 2,000 people have been killed and another 420,000 forced to leave their homes or shelters as Israel seizes ever-larger swathes of the territory for what it terms security buffer zones.

More than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken captive. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade on the strip two weeks before it unilaterally restarted the fighting. Food, water, fuel and medicine are now running critically low, leading aid agencies to declare that Gaza’s already devastating humanitarian crisis is worse than ever.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany urged Israel to stop blocking aid into Gaza, warning of “an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death”.

“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” the ministers said. The joint statement – unusually strong criticism from some of Israel’s closest allies – came several weeks after similar calls from the UN, EU and Arab states.

Efforts led by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to resume talks aimed at a ceasefire and ending the war have not yet led to a breakthrough. Reports of a new plan emerged on Wednesday that would include a truce of between five and seven years, and the release of the rest of the Israeli hostages seized in October 2023.

A Hamas delegation travelled to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, late on Tuesday to discuss the proposal. Israel has not responded to the invitation to another round of indirect negotiations.

There has been little sign that either side is willing to move closer on fundamental issues such as the disarmament of Hamas or the withdrawal of Israeli troops, although it is believed mediators are under pressure from Washington to show progress before Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East next month.

The president of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, made a rare intervention in the conflict on Wednesday, calling for Hamas to free the Israeli hostages and saying their captivity provided Israel with “excuses” to attack Gaza.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, called Abbas’s remarks “insulting”. Hamas and Abbas’s secular Fatah party, which dominates the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority, fought a brief civil war in 2007 that resulted in Hamas seizing control of Gaza.

Oasis fans have collectively lost more than £2m to scams since tickets for its reunion tour went on sale last year, a major bank has estimated.

Lloyds Banking Group based the calculation on the volume of fraud reports made by its own customers. Oasis fans make up more than half (56%) of all reported concert ticket scams so far this year, according to Lloyds’ data, losing £436 on average.

The biggest amount lost in a single case so far was more than £1,700, suggesting many fans are willing to pay well over face value, the bank said.

The average loss to criminals pretending to sell Oasis tickets is about £200 more than the average concert ticket scam loss, it added.

People aged 35 to 44 are the most likely to be scammed, making up nearly a third (30%) of all cases, reports to Lloyds indicate.

Edinburgh, Warrington and Manchester have the highest numbers of victims of scams, with the top 10 locations overall making up a quarter (25%) of cases, the banking group said.

The bank found there had been more than 1,000 cases reported since fans’ scramble for tickets started last summer.

Based on its share of banking customers, it estimates that across the UK there are likely to have been at least 5,000 victims since tickets went on sale, with more than £2m lost to fraudsters.

The analysis was based on concert ticket purchase scams reported by Lloyds Banking Group customers, including customers of Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, where Oasis was referenced as part of the claim, between August 2024 and March 2025.

In a warning about where many scams are originating, the bank highlighted unofficial groups set up on social media, dedicated to buying and selling tickets for the Oasis tour.

Purchase scams happen when someone is tricked into sending money via bank transfer to buy goods or services that do not exist.

Lloyds said ticket scams often involved fake adverts, posts or listings on social media, offering tickets at discounted prices, or access to events that have already sold out at inflated prices.

Fraudsters will also exploit fans’ willingness to pay more for scarce tickets by falsely claiming to have them available.

Victims are asked to pay upfront for the tickets and scammers vanish after receiving the money.

Scams often happen in two waves – the first when tickets are released for sale, and again as the event date approaches.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds, said: “The Oasis tour is the latest target for ticket scammers, with millions of pounds of fans’ money stolen before the gigs even kick off.

“The fact that so many cases start with fake listings on social media, often in violation of the platforms’ own rules, underscores the importance of these companies taking stronger action to tackle scams.

“It’s vital that consumers feel empowered to shop safely online. Buying directly from reputable, authorised retailers is the only way to guarantee you’re paying for a genuine ticket.

“If you’re asked to pay via bank transfer, particularly by a seller you’ve found on social media, that should immediately set alarm bells ringing.”

Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, said: “Scammers are always looking for new ways to part people from their hard-earned cash and unfortunately, Oasis tickets being in such high demand has created a perfect storm for criminals.”

She added: “If you spot any suspicious posts, you can report them to the social media platform and the National Cyber Security Centre to investigate.”

Guy Anker, personal finance expert at website Compare the Market, said: “With big-name tours generating huge demand, it’s important to remain vigilant to potential scams. When tickets are hard to come by, it can be tempting to buy from unofficial sources, but this often leads to disappointment and can cause significant financial loss.

“To help protect yourself, always try to book through trusted platforms, and consider using a credit card, which can sometimes offer extra protection under Section 75 if something goes wrong.”

If someone uses their credit card to make a purchase, the transaction could be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which allows people to raise a claim with their lender if something goes wrong.

Adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised by daily exposure, according to the first clinical trial of its kind.

After being given steadily increasing doses of peanut flour over a period of months, two-thirds of the trial participants were able to eat the equivalent of five peanuts without reacting.

The findings suggest that the window of opportunity for treating allergies could extend into adulthood, raising the prospect of new treatments for those severely affected.

“Constant fear of life-threatening reactions place a huge burden on people with peanut allergy,” said Stephen Till, the professor who led the research at King’s College London. “The only way to manage a peanut allergy is strict avoidance and treatment of allergic reactions, including with adrenaline.

“Although peanut immunotherapy is known to be effective in children, this trial provides preliminary evidence that adults can also be desensitised and that this improves quality of life.”

The Grown Up Peanut Immunotherapy (GUPI) trial recruited 21 adults aged between 18 and 40 with a clinical diagnosis of peanut allergy. The participants were initially given a dose of 0.8mg peanut flour mixed in with food, then 1.5mg 30 minutes later followed by 3mg a further 30 minutes later. Those who were able to safely tolerate these very low doses – equivalent to less than 1% of a peanut – in a clinical setting were continued on a daily dose at home for two weeks.

Participants returned every two weeks to increase their dose under supervision until they reached a 1g dose, the equivalent of four peanuts. The participants maintained a daily dose for three months, after which 67% of them were able to consume at least 1.4g of peanut protein – the equivalent of five peanuts – without reacting. The findings are published in the journal Allergy.

“Living with peanut allergy is a huge burden due to the need for constant vigilance and the risk of accidental exposures,” said Hannah Hunter, lead author and a specialist allergy dietitian at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust. “Many participants who completed the trial told us that the treatment had been life-changing and they were no longer living in fear.”

Some patients took longer than others to desensitise – time on the trial ranged from eight to 14 months before the pandemic, although Covid-related delays meant the process took 23 months for some participants.

After the trial, the participants were able to continue their daily peanut consumption to remain desensitised. They were still considered allergic, however, and were advised not to consume more than their daily dose and to still carry an adrenaline EpiPen.

Chris, 28, was diagnosed with a peanut allergy as a baby and said that, before participating in the trial, the possibility of accidental exposure to peanuts was a source of anxiety. “Now, I have four peanuts every day with my breakfast to maintain my immunity,” he said. “Before, a tiny mistake could have life-threatening impacts but now I don’t have the fear that I might collapse and die from eating a takeaway.”

A larger multi-centre trial would be required before the treatment could be introduced more widely, but the findings suggest the approach could be as effective for adults with severe allergies.

Prof Adam Fox, chair of the national allergy study group at King’s College London, said: “Conventional wisdom has been that oral immunotherapy for food is really just for children and there is clear evidence that the younger it is started, the safer and better the outcome. However, that doesn’t mean that the benefits would not still be worthwhile for adults, and this study shows that for many, oral immunotherapy for peanut, at least, can still make a real difference.”

The largest ever global study into the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has been terminated just 13 months shy of completion, after becoming caught up in the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts.

The Global Vaccine Data Network, which was established in 2019 by the New Zealand-based vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris and the US-based vaccinologist Steven Black, has already produced some of the world’s most comprehensive studies on vaccine efficacy and safety, based on data from more than 300 million people.

The University of Auckland hosts the network, which collaborates with institutions and experts across the globe.

The groundbreaking five-year project to evaluate the safety of Covid vaccines across hundreds of millions of people received more than NZ$10m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2021, but after a recent funding review by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), it can no longer finish the project, Petousis-Harris said.

The network looks at data from millions of people to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines, analyse risk and benefits and respond to issues such as vaccine hesitancy.

To do this requires “enormous study power, enormous populations and diversity”, said Petousis-Harris, who is an associate professor at the University of Auckland.

But funding for the global Covid vaccine safety project was “suddenly cut … without warning, without planning”, she told the Guardian.

The second Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US scientific institutions and government departments, as well as research and aid programmes, which has affected projects across the globe.

On 1 April, roughly 10,000 people lost their jobs at agencies including the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health in a continuation of one of the largest mass firings in American history.

The cuts to CDC has not only affected the data network’s “bottom dollar” but will further delegitimise science, scientific institutions and scientists, Petousis-Harris said.

“The impact of the Trump administration to withdraw such vast amounts of funding globally is almost hard to articulate.”

The Covid vaccine project needs roughly US$2m to finish its work, she said. The network hopes another funder – be it governmental or philanthropic – will fill the financial gap.

Meanwhile, the loss of such research risks creating the conditions for disinformation about vaccines to flourish.

“We saw it go on steroids over the pandemic period, and now, by disestablishing so many institutions that do have some authority in the space, you’ve just opened it wide up for different narratives,” Petousis-Harris said.

The University of Auckland’s UniServices – the commercial arm of the University that supports research programmes such as the Global Vaccine Data Network – confirmed the project’s funding had been cut.

“Recently the CDC informed UniServices that that funding for the [project] would cease with immediate effect,” said Dr Greg Murison, UniServices’ executive director.

“We are now in the process of consolidating and securing the data and material created on vaccine safety and research the [project] has collated since 2019.”

The network had published “several significant scientific findings since its inception” and some of its other projects will continue due to being funded separately.

The New Zealand health ministry said it was aware of the decision to end the study’s funding. “At this stage, the Ministry has not received a request for funding,” it said.

A British artist claims to have replicated in paint a colour that scientists say they discovered by having laser pulses fired into their eyes.

Stuart Semple created his own version of the blue-green colour based on the US research published in Science Advances, which he is selling on his website for £10,000 per 150ml jar – or £29.99 if you state you are an artist.

In the experiment conducted at University of California, Berkeley, a laser was used to stimulate individual cells in the retinas of five researchers, pushing their perception of colour beyond its natural limits.

Semple, who has previously made what he claims to be the world’s blackest and pinkest paints, synthesised his version of the colour in a more low-tech manner.

The artist mixed pigments, adding fluorescent optical brighteners that absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it as visible blue light, making materials appear whiter or brighter. Using a spectrometer, which separates light into its constituent colours, he then analysed their intensity to best match his paint samples to the target hue.

“I’ve always thought that colour should be available to everybody,” said the artist, who also produced his own version of Yves Klein’s famous ultramarine blue paint. “I’ve fought for years to liberate these colours that are either corporately owned or scientists have staked a claim to, or have been licensed to an individual person.”

The scientists named the colour olo. Semple, who called his version yolo, has form for irreverently reproducing colours only available to an exclusive few.

When the artist Anish Kapoor bought the exclusive rights to the world’s blackest paint, Semple made what he said was a blacker one and banned the Turner prizewinner from using it.

Humans perceive the colours of the world when light falls on colour-sensitive cells called cones in the retina. There are three types of cones that are sensitive to long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths of light.

Red light primarily stimulates L cones, while blue light chiefly activates S cones. But M cones sit in the middle and there is no natural light that excites these alone.

The Berkley experiment produced a colour beyond the natural range of the naked eye because the M cones are stimulated almost exclusively. Its name olo comes from the binary 010, indicating that of the L, M and S cones, only the M cones are switched on.

Semple said: “I think they’ve triggered an experience in people that they’re approximating to a colour. What I’ve done is tried to make an actual colour of that experience.”

Austin Roorda, a vision scientist on the Berkley team, said he would buy a bottle of the paint, but not for £10,000. “I might even commission my cousin who’s an artist to do some work with this paint,” he said.

“It’s impossible to recreate a colour that matches olo,” he added. “Any colour that you can reproduce would just pale by comparison. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a paint or a swatch of colour or something or even a monochromatic laser, which generate the most saturated natural human colour experiences.”

The scientist said he had also tried to recreate the colour by meticulously mixing two liqueurs: the slightly sweet melon-flavoured Midori and Blue Curacau, made from the dried peel of the bitter orange.

“It’s a bit foul, Roorda said of the concoction’s taste. “But the more I drink, the more it looks like olo.”