A senior Russian military official has been killed in a car explosion near Moscow, hours before a Kremlin meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The Russian authorities named the officer as Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the main operations directorate of the general staff of the Russian armed forces.

The blast appeared to be similar in nature to previous attacks on Russians that were later claimed by Ukraine and could cast a shadow over Friday’s talks between Moscow and Washington.

The Russian investigative committee said the explosions were caused by the detonation of an improvised explosive device packed with shrapnel. The committee, which investigates major crimes, said it had opened a criminal case.

Baza, a Telegram channel with sources in Russia’s law enforcement agencies, said a bomb in a parked car in the town of Balashikha in the Moscow region had been detonated remotely when the officer, who lived locally, walked past.

A video circulating on Russian social media captured the moment the car exploded, while additional images showed the vehicle completely burnt out.

Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident.

The latest apparent Ukrainian operation is unlikely to sit well with the Trump administration, which has been desperate to show tangible progress on peace before Trump’s 100th day in office next week.

Despite Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire and continued missile strikes on Ukraine, the US president has repeatedly criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy over stalled peace talks, while adopting a more cautious tone toward the Russian leader.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials whom Kyiv has accused of committing war crimes in the country. Little is known, however, about the clandestine Ukrainian resistance cells involved in assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure in Russia and Russian-controlled areas.

Last December, Ukraine’s security services targeted another senior Russian general who was killed after an explosive device hidden in an electric scooter detonated outside an apartment building in Moscow.

At the time, Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump’s appointed special representative for Ukraine and Russia, criticised the killing of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, saying it could violate the rules of warfare.

Apart from military figures, Ukraine has targeted prominent Russian pro-war propagandists including Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, who was killed in 2023 when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving.

Moskalik, 59, was part of several high-profile Russian foreign delegations in recent years, including in at least two rounds of talks with Ukraine and western officials in 2015 and 2019, as well as a 2018 visit to the Assad regime in Syria.

Insiders close to the defence ministry say his influence within the Russian military was on the rise.

Mikhail Zvinchuk, a popular Russian military blogger with ties to the defence establishment, said: “According to chatter behind the scenes, one scenario for personnel reshuffling at the general staff had Moskalik being considered as a potential head of the national defence management centre, primarily due to his methodical approach and thoughtfulness.”

North Korea’s role in the war in Ukraine has come into sharp focus after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said a Russian missile that killed 12 people in Kyiv had been supplied by the regime in Pyongyang.

“According to preliminary information, the Russians used a ballistic missile manufactured in North Korea,” Zelenskyy said. “Our special services are verifying all the details.

“If the information that this missile was made in North Korea is confirmed, this will be further proof of the criminal nature of the alliance between Russia and Pyongyang.”

The North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) ballistic missile reportedly struck a residential block in the Sviatoshynskyi district of the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. Zelenskyy’s claims are a reminder of the Kremlin’s increasing reliance on the North’s soldiers and ammunition and, critically, its missiles.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied reports that thousands of North Korean troops were sent to fight in Russia’s western Kursk region last autumn. Both insist there have been no weapons transfers that would violate UN sanctions.

But experts have been able to form a clearer picture of the North’s material role in the conflict based on satellite imagery, verified social media videos, intercepted military reports and information released by intelligence services in Ukraine and South Korea.

In addition to large quantities of artillery shells, North Korea has supplied Russia with multiple-launch rocket systems and long-range artillery, as well as ballistic missiles that were first used against Ukrainian positions at the end of 2023.

The North had supplied Russia with 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles by the start of this year, according to reports attributed to Ukraine’s military spy agency. The missiles are of the type believed to have been used in this week’s deadly attack on Kyiv, which also injured at least 90 people.

KN-23 missiles are armed with warheads of up to one tonne, making them more powerful than the Russian equivalent missiles, a Ukrainian source told Reuters.

The North Korean inventory is not confined to missiles. A joint investigation by Reuters and the Open Source Centre, an independent UK-based research organisation, found that millions of its shells had found their way to the frontline by sea and then train.

The investigation tracked 64 shipments, made by a special fleet of Russian munitions carriers, over 20 months. It comprised nearly 16,000 containers and millions of artillery rounds for use against Ukraine. One shipment was made as recently as 17 March, the report said.

The OSC said its study of hundreds of satellite images and three-dimensional reconstructions of the vessels, containers and munitions “reveals a sobering truth: since September 2023, North Korea has shipped over 15,000 containers likely containing over 4 million artillery shells and rockets, potentially worth several billions of dollars”.

North Korean munitions and weapons have had a significant impact on the Kremlin’s ability to prosecute the war, which began in February 2022.

The investigation quoted an expert in the Ukrainian military who said the North’s contribution accounted for as much as 70% of munitions used by Russian artillery units.

“North Korea’s contribution has been strategically vital,” said Hugh Griffiths, who from 2014 to 2019 was the coordinator of a UN panel of experts that monitored sanctions against North Korea. “Without Chairman Kim Jong-un’s support, President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t really be able to prosecute his war in Ukraine.”

Other experts said the North had furnished Russia with a combination of outdated or surplus ammunition, as well as newer weapons that have now been field-tested in the war against Ukraine.

In a recent report, 38 North, part of the Stimson Center thinktank in Washington, listed artillery and mortar shells, multiple rocket launchers and rockets, as well as self-propelled guns among the old weapons and ammunition Pyongyang had sent to Russian forces.

Tianran Xu, an expert on military technology at the Open Nuclear Network, speculated that the North had been eager to offload the hardware, which some experts say has poor levels of accuracy.

Of greater significance, Xu said, was the provision of new weaponry that enhances Russia’s attack capabilities and gives the North Korean regime the ability to gauge the weapons’ performance on the battlefield.

They include more than 140 Hwasong-11 series short-range ballistic missiles, parts from which were discovered after a Russian strike on Ukrainian forces in January in 2024.

The 38 North report speculated that the longer the war continued, the greater the likelihood that North Korea would send more sophisticated weapons to the battlefield, including anti-tank guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and drones jointly developed with Russia.

“If the war drags on, North Korean weapon provision to Russia is most likely to escalate further,” Xu wrote on the 38 North website. “The combat performance of these hardware in Ukraine will give Pyongyang a valuable opportunity to evaluate and refine its domestic weapon systems.

“In return for Pyongyang’s lethal aid, Moscow will likely reciprocate with weapons and/or military technologies, further strengthening North Korea’s offensive and defensive capabilities on the Korean peninsula and beyond.”

The first North Korean deployment of about 11,000 soldiers came after their ruler, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin agreed to a “strategic partnership treaty” during a summit in Pyongyang in June 2024.

The troops were deployed to fight against the Ukrainian counter-invasion of the Russian border region of Kursk, according to South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff. About 4,000 of them have reportedly been killed or injured, and some have been taken prisoner. The mass casualties apparently prompted their withdrawal from the frontlines in January, Ukrainian officials said; however Pyongyang appears to have sent at least 3,000 additional soldiers early this year, the South’s military said last month.

Luigi Mangione is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court on Friday for arraignment on charges that he tracked and murdered the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, late last year.

Mangione, 26, could face the death penalty in a case that shocked America for the killing of a top business executive on New York’s streets but also triggered an outpouring of anger against America’s for-profit healthcare industry.

Mangione’s arraignment comes months after his arrest for allegedly gunning down Thompson outside a New York hotel on 4 December. He was apprehended on 9 December at a McDonald’s in n Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a restaurant worker purportedly recognized him from law enforcement advisories and tipped off police.

In federal court, Mangione faces stalking, murder through use of a firearm, and firearms offense charges. Mangione is also charged with a host of murder and firearms counts in New York state court.

Pennsylvania state prosecutors are also pursuing a case against him related to alleged weapons possession and false identification. He has maintained his innocence.

While Mangione was already staring down the prospect of life imprisonment following his arrest, Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, raised the stakes several weeks ago by announcing that she was directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Bondi called Thompson’s killing “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”. She stated that her decision was in keeping with “President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again”.

The last time federal prosecutors in Manhattan pursued the death penalty involved Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamist extremist who murdered eight people in a truck attack.

During the penalty phase of Saipov’s trial, jurors could not unanimously decide on whether to impose death, resulting in him being automatically sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Gregory Germain, a professor of law at Syracuse University’s College of Law, previously told the Guardian that nearly all recent federal death penalty cases took place during Trump’s first term.

Germain said he believed that Trump’s justice department would not agree to an agreement in which Mangione pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

“He has political reasons, wanting to seem ‘tough on crime’ by supporting the death penalty,” Germain said.

Apple is reportedly planning to switch assembly of all iPhones for the US market to India as the company seeks to reduce its reliance on a Chinese manufacturing base amid Donald Trump’s trade war.

The $3tn (£2.3tn) technology company aims to make the shift as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported.

Apple has been swept up in Trump’s aggressive tariff policies, with the iPhone maker at one point among the biggest stock market casualties because of the prospect of its Chinese-made products being hit with a hefty import tax when they reach the US.

However, the blow was softened by a White House decision to exclude smartphones from the heaviest Chinese tariffs, although Apple is still exposed to a 20% levy on all Chinese goods as part of the US president’s response to China’s role in producing Fentanyl.

The complex manufacturing process behind iPhones involves more than 1,000 components sourced from all over the world – albeit they are largely put together in China. Apple is secretive about details of its production processes but analysts estimate that about 90% of its iPhones are assembled in the country.

According to the FT, Apple plans to source from India the more than 60m iPhones sold in the US annually by the end of 2026 – a commitment that would require more than doubling iPhone assembly in India.

Apple has already been ramping up production in India and diverting iPhones assembled in the country to the US. The company’s main Indian suppliers, Foxconn and Tata, shipped almost $2bn worth of handsets to their largest market in March as Apple sought to offset the impact of looming tariffs.

It also chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tonnes of iPhones – or as many as 1.5m devices – to the US to ensure sufficient inventory in an important market. Apple has three plants in India and last month temporarily extended operations to Sunday working at the biggest Foxconn India factory in Chennai.

More than 5o% of Apple’s Mac products and 80% of its iPads are assembled in China as well, according to US investment bank Evercore. Apple watches are largely built in Vietnam.

Analysts do not expect Apple to move iPhone production to the US, despite the White House insisting that the manufacturing of an American tech product will ultimately return home. The US president’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that Apple’s recent announcement of a $500bn investment indicated a US-made iPhone was possible.

“If Apple didn’t think the US could do it, they probably wouldn’t have put up that big chunk of change,” she said.

However, experts have played down the prospect. Wedbush Securities, a US financial firm, said the cost of an American-made iPhone would more than treble if production was shifted to the US.

“If consumers want a $3,500 iPhone we should make them in New Jersey or Texas or another state,” the Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.

Fraser Johnson, a professor at Ivey business school in Canada and an Apple supply chain expert, said last month that the US economy did not have the facilities or the flexible labour to assemble iPhones.

“To train 200,000-300,000 people to come in and assemble iPhones is simply not practical,” he said.

Apple has been approached for comment.

Xi Jinping has announced a plan to counter China’s continuing economic problems and the impact of the US trade war, as reports swirl that it could drop tariffs on some US products, including semiconductors.

Friday’s meeting of the politburo was convened to discuss China’s economic situation, which since the pandemic has faced difficulties fuelled by a housing sector crisis, youth unemployment, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on all Chinese exports.

A readout of the meeting published by the official state media outlet, Xinhua, said China’s economy had showed a “positive trend” with increasing social confidence in 2025, but “the impact of external shocks has increased”.

“We must strengthen bottom-line thinking, fully prepare emergency plans, and do a solid job in economic work,” it said.

In a reference to Trump’s global tariffs, the readout said Beijing would “work with the international community to actively uphold multilateralism and oppose unilateral bullying practices”.

The readout proposed a series of interventions to bolster the domestic economy and protect people and businesses from the impact of Trump’s tariffs, including increasing unemployment insurance payouts. It promised to increase low and middle incomes, develop the service industry and boost consumption.

“We should take multiple measures to help enterprises in difficulties,” it said. “We should strengthen financing support. We should accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade.”

It stressed the need for more proactive macroeconomic policies, faster development of a new real estate model and increased housing stock, and “stepping up” city renewal programmes and urban renovation.

Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said the politburo’s decisions showed Beijing “clearly views the international macroeconomic environment as hostile” and was willing to take on high domestic inflation to weather the tariffs.

“[This] hints that China will be digging into the trenches and is preparing for a long trade fight with Trump.”

Sung said Beijing was “doubling down on boosting domestic demand” and bolstering fiscal stimulus, as the international market showed no signs of significant improvement.

The meeting was held amid reports that Chinese authorities were considering a list of US products to exempt from the 125% tariffs imposed on all US imports. Earlier reports from Bloomberg and Reuters said medical equipment, semiconductors and some industrial chemicals such as ethane were being considered.

On Thursday, a Shenzhen-based supplier posted online that it had been notified by the customs agency that eight semiconductor products would no longer attract the 125% duty.

On Friday, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Michael Hart, said the Chinese authorities had been asking members what products they imported from the US that they could not find anywhere else.

He welcomed the early signs that both sides were reviewing tariffs and starting to produce lists of excluded items. Stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region rose after the reports.

The trade war has hit the US and Chinese economies, and the tariff exemptions are a likely sign of the parties trying to ease their ways out. The US had already exempted some categories of Chinese-made products from tariffs, including smartphones and laptops. This week Trump said his tariffs on China would “come down substantially but it won’t be zero”.

But in public the two governments have given different accounts on the status of negotiations on ending the trade war.

On Friday afternoon, China’s foreign ministry reiterated its claim that the US and China are not engaged in any negotiations on tariffs, contradicting Trump’s claims on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the two sides were talking. “We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China,” the US president said, declining to say who “they” were.

The remarks appeared to be in response to the Chinese commerce ministry’s spokesperson, He Yadong, who earlier said there were “currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States”.

The actor Pedro Pascal has attacked author JK Rowling on X, calling her a “heinous loser”.

Pascal responded to a comment reporting the words of activist Tariq Ra’ouf in an Instagram video, in which he urged people to boycott Rowling’s work.

“It has become our mission as the general public to make sure that every single thing that’s Harry Potter related fails … because that awful disgusting shit, that has consequences.”

Pascal liked the post and wrote: “Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behaviour.”

Responding on Instagram to the interaction, Ra’ouf applauded Pascal and said he also felt the “immense pain” of the silence of other celebrities.

Pascal has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and is frequently accompanied on the red carpet by his transgender sister, Lux.

Rowling has attracted some backlash to a photograph she posted of herself last week, smoking a cigar on a yacht with the caption: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

This came after judges in Scotland ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex. The action to determine this had been brought by For Women Scotland, a campaign group which brought a case against the Scottish government in which they argued that sex-based protections should only apply to those born female.

Rowling wrote on X: “It took three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women with an army behind them to get this case heard by the supreme court and, in winning, they’ve protected the rights of women and girls across the UK,” adding, “For Women Scotland, I’m so proud to know you.”

In February, Pascal shared the quote: “A world without trans people has never existed and never will,” on Instagram, dividing his followers. After some threatened to unfollow him, he reiterated his stance, writing: “I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorising the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.”

Earlier this week, he wore a T-shirt reading: “Protect the Dolls” to the London premiere of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, part of a pro-trans campaign by American designer Conner Ives.

Some of the cast of the new HBO Harry Potter series have experienced online abuse in response to their involvement. However, all three of the key actors so far revealed have also played landmark LGBTQ+ roles. John Lithgow, who will play Albus Dumbledore, won much acclaim for his performance as a transgender woman in 1982’s The World According to Garp.

Janet McTeer, who takes over as Professor McGonagall, played a trans man in 2011’s Albert Nobbs, while Paapa Essiedu (cast as Prof Snape) has frequently played queer roles, most notably in I May Destroy You and the short film Femme, in which he played a gay drag performer.

The series begins filming later this year. Casting of the leading children’s roles has yet to be announced.

Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire overnight across the line of control in disputed Kashmir, officials have said, after the UN urged the nuclear-armed rivals to show “maximum restraint” after Tuesday’s massacre of Indian tourists by Islamic militants.

Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir for a quarter of a century.

The brief exchange of small-arms fire came as police in Kashmir said they had identified three suspected attackers affiliated with the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba they say were involved in Tuesday’s massacre of Indian tourists and released their sketches, announcing a bounty of 2m rupees (about £17,500) on the three.

A manhunt is under way in the densely forested mountains surrounding the attack site in southern Kashmir.

Syed Ashfaq Gilani, a government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told Agence France-Presse on Friday that troops exchanged fire along the line of control that separates the two countries.

“There is post-to-post firing in Leepa valley overnight. There is no firing on the civilian population. Life is normal. Schools are open,” said Gilani, a senior government official in Jhelum valley district.

India’s army confirmed there had been limited firing of small arms that it said had been initiated by Pakistan, adding it had been “effectively responded to”.

Three Indian army officials told Reuters that Pakistani soldiers used small-arms to fire at an Indian position. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, and the incident could not be independently verified. In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.

India’s army chief, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, is to lead a high-level security review in Srinagar in Indian-held Kashmir on Friday, days after militants killed 26 civilians in the disputed region in one of the worst such attacks in years.

The brazen assault, carried out in a mountain meadow near Pahalgam, has derailed prime minister Narendra Modi’s claims of restored calm in the restive Himalayan territory and sent tensions soaring between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The Indian army has launched sweeping “search-and-destroy” operations, deployed surveillance drones, and ramped up troop numbers across the Kashmir valley. The manhunt is searching for three suspects – one Indian national and two Pakistanis.

Early on Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is an accused in Tuesday’s attack, according to an official.

As tensions rise between the two countries, the UN has urged India and Pakistan to show restraint. The countries have imposed tit-for-tat diplomatic measures over a deadly shooting in Kashmir.

Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir in a quarter of a century.

“We very much appeal to both the governments … to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further,” the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on Thursday.

“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe, can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement.”

Dwivedi’s visit to the regional capital underscores a sharp increase in military and diplomatic activity. India began large-scale air and naval drills on Thursday, which analysts say could pave the way for military action.

The Indian air force’s Gagan Shakti exercises, showcasing its Rafale jets and elite strike squadrons, have assumed added urgency, while the navy has intensified manoeuvres and test-fired a surface-to-air missile.

“There are many imponderables Modi must deal with, including the significant capabilities of the Pakistan army,” the veteran analyst C Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express. “But given the horrific nature of the attack and the outrage that has convulsed the nation – the victims came from 15 states across India – the PM may have no option but to explore some major risks.”

On the diplomatic front, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, briefed envoys from 25 countries, including key G20 partners, Gulf states and, notably, China. Beijing’s inclusion, despite strained ties, was seen as an attempt to build broader global consensus.

India presented what it called “clear evidence of cross-border complicity”. An obscure group calling itself the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian officials say it is a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba or a similar outfit. Islamabad denied involvement, accusing India of failing to provide proof.

On Thursday, Modi promised to capture the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians, after Indian police identified two of the three fugitive assailants as Pakistani.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” the prime minister said, in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”

Denying any involvement, Islamabad called attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack “frivolous” and vowed to respond to any Indian action.

“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a Pakistani statement said, after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, held a rare national security committee meeting with top military chiefs.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since its independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

A day after the attack, New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties, and withdrew visas for Pakistanis.

In response, Islamabad ordered the expulsion of Indian diplomats and military advisers on Thursday, cancelling visas for Indian nationals – with the exception of Sikh pilgrims – and closing the main border crossing from its side.

Pakistan also warned any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River would be an “act of war”.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Troops from Pakistan and India exchanged fire overnight across the line of control in disputed Kashmir, officials have said, after the UN urged the nuclear-armed rivals to show “maximum restraint” after Tuesday’s massacre of Indian tourists by Islamic militants.

Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir for a quarter of a century.

The brief exchange of small-arms fire came as police in Kashmir said they had identified three suspected attackers affiliated with the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba they say were involved in Tuesday’s massacre of Indian tourists and released their sketches, announcing a bounty of 2m rupees (about £17,500) on the three.

A manhunt is under way in the densely forested mountains surrounding the attack site in southern Kashmir.

Syed Ashfaq Gilani, a government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told Agence France-Presse on Friday that troops exchanged fire along the line of control that separates the two countries.

“There is post-to-post firing in Leepa valley overnight. There is no firing on the civilian population. Life is normal. Schools are open,” said Gilani, a senior government official in Jhelum valley district.

India’s army confirmed there had been limited firing of small arms that it said had been initiated by Pakistan, adding it had been “effectively responded to”.

Three Indian army officials told Reuters that Pakistani soldiers used small-arms to fire at an Indian position. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, and the incident could not be independently verified. In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.

India’s army chief, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, is to lead a high-level security review in Srinagar in Indian-held Kashmir on Friday, days after militants killed 26 civilians in the disputed region in one of the worst such attacks in years.

The brazen assault, carried out in a mountain meadow near Pahalgam, has derailed prime minister Narendra Modi’s claims of restored calm in the restive Himalayan territory and sent tensions soaring between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The Indian army has launched sweeping “search-and-destroy” operations, deployed surveillance drones, and ramped up troop numbers across the Kashmir valley. The manhunt is searching for three suspects – one Indian national and two Pakistanis.

Early on Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is an accused in Tuesday’s attack, according to an official.

As tensions rise between the two countries, the UN has urged India and Pakistan to show restraint. The countries have imposed tit-for-tat diplomatic measures over a deadly shooting in Kashmir.

Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir in a quarter of a century.

“We very much appeal to both the governments … to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further,” the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on Thursday.

“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe, can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement.”

Dwivedi’s visit to the regional capital underscores a sharp increase in military and diplomatic activity. India began large-scale air and naval drills on Thursday, which analysts say could pave the way for military action.

The Indian air force’s Gagan Shakti exercises, showcasing its Rafale jets and elite strike squadrons, have assumed added urgency, while the navy has intensified manoeuvres and test-fired a surface-to-air missile.

“There are many imponderables Modi must deal with, including the significant capabilities of the Pakistan army,” the veteran analyst C Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express. “But given the horrific nature of the attack and the outrage that has convulsed the nation – the victims came from 15 states across India – the PM may have no option but to explore some major risks.”

On the diplomatic front, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, briefed envoys from 25 countries, including key G20 partners, Gulf states and, notably, China. Beijing’s inclusion, despite strained ties, was seen as an attempt to build broader global consensus.

India presented what it called “clear evidence of cross-border complicity”. An obscure group calling itself the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack. Indian officials say it is a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba or a similar outfit. Islamabad denied involvement, accusing India of failing to provide proof.

On Thursday, Modi promised to capture the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians, after Indian police identified two of the three fugitive assailants as Pakistani.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” the prime minister said, in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”

Denying any involvement, Islamabad called attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack “frivolous” and vowed to respond to any Indian action.

“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a Pakistani statement said, after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, held a rare national security committee meeting with top military chiefs.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since its independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

A day after the attack, New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties, and withdrew visas for Pakistanis.

In response, Islamabad ordered the expulsion of Indian diplomats and military advisers on Thursday, cancelling visas for Indian nationals – with the exception of Sikh pilgrims – and closing the main border crossing from its side.

Pakistan also warned any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River would be an “act of war”.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report

Piling confusion on controversy, a Romanian district appeals court has ruled barely a week before the rerun of the country’s presidential election that the constitutional court’s decision cancelling the original vote should itself be annulled.

Romania’s central electoral bureau said on Thursday night that the ruling by the Ploiești city appeals court would not affect the two-round ballot, due to be held on 4 and 18 May, and legal experts have said constitutional court decisions are final.

But the decision, which is likely to be overturned within days by the high court, has added what media described as “unprecedented legal chaos” to an already contentious vote that has been the subject of fierce debate at home and abroad.

The original first round last November was won by Călin Georgescu, a far-right, anti-EU, Moscow-friendly independent who declared zero campaign spending but surged from less than 5% days before the vote to finish first on 23%.

The constitutional court annulled the vote after declassified intelligence documents revealed an alleged Russian influence operation, including multiple cyber-attacks on the electoral IT system and “massive” social media meddling in Georgescu’s favour.

In February, Georgescu, who denies wrongdoing, was placed under investigation on counts including misreporting campaign finances, misuse of digital technology and promoting fascist groups, and in March he was barred from standing in the rerun.

Romania’s far-right parties denounced the string of court decisions as an anti-democratic establishment coup, and national conservatives abroad – including the Trump administration – accused Bucharest of suppressing its political opponents.

The replacement far-right candidate, George Simion, is leading the polls ahead of the centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, and Crin Antonescu, representing the ruling Social Democratic party (PSD) and the centre-right National Liberal party (PNL).

The Ploiești appeals court said it “admitted the claim” and “suspended execution of the 6 December constitutional court decision” annulling the election. A counter-appeal has already been lodged and will be heard by the high court within days.

A former constitutional court judge and justice minister, Tudorel Toader, told the Digi24.ro news outlet that constitutional court decisions were in any case “final, generate effects from publication in the official gazette, and cannot be subject to appeal”.

Toader said an appeals court judge “has no competence over constitutional jurisdiction, which is outside the judicial system” and such a ruling could “categorically not” be implemented. “Who knows what considerations he had,” Toader said.

Another former judge, Cristi Danileț, agreed, telling Digi24 that no court could “suspend or annul a decision of the constitutional court – even more so a decision that has already been implemented, by issuing the orders to organise new elections”.

Danileț said the Ploiești decision was a “judicial aberration” that resulted from “the law being applied in bad faith”. He said he suspected it was a result of “judicial engineering” to ensure the appeal was heard by a judge likely to find in its favour.

Several outlets reported that the justice ministry had ordered an investigation into whether or not the judge concerned had committed a disciplinary offence.

The election is being closely watched abroad: the EU would prefer not to have another nationalist disruptor in the region alongside Hungary and Slovakia, and Ukraine’s allies would prefer Romania, home to a big Nato base, to remain a strategic ally.

Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we’re all going to be bosses – of AI employees.

The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a “frontier firm”, where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks.

Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss.

“As agents increasingly join the workforce, we’ll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI,” wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blogpost this week. “From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup.”

Microsoft, a major backer of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, expects every organisation to be on their way to becoming a frontier firm within the next five years. It said these entities will be “markedly different” from those we know today and will be structured around what Microsoft calls “on-demand intelligence”.

The company said in its annual Work Trend Index report: “These companies scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster.”

It expects the emergence of the AI boss class to take place over three phases: first, every employee will have an AI assistant; then AI agents will join teams as “digital colleagues” taking on specific tasks; and finally humans will set directions for these agents, who go off on “business processes and workflows” with their bosses “checking in as needed”.

Microsoft said AI’s impact on knowledge work – a catch-all term for a range of professions from scientists to academics and lawyers – will go the same way as software development, by evolving from coding assistance to agents carrying out tasks.

Using the example of a worker’s role in a supply chain, Microsoft said agents could handle end-to-end logistics while humans guide the system and manage relationships with suppliers.

Microsoft has been pushing AI’s deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents, or tools that can carry out tasks without human intervention. Last year it announced that early adopters of Microsoft’s Copilot Studio product, which deploys bots, included the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is using agents to carry out tasks such as scheduling meetings with prospective clients.

AI’s impact on the modern workforce is one of the key economic and policy challenges produced by the technology’s rapid advance. While Microsoft says AI will remove “drudge” work and increase productivity – a measure of economic effectiveness – experts also believe it could result in widespread job losses.

This year the UK government-backed International AI Safety report said “many people could lose their current jobs” if AI agents become highly capable.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated 60% of jobs in advanced economies such as the US and UK are exposed to AI, and half of these jobs may be negatively affected as a result.

The Tony Blair Institute, which supports widespread introduction of AI across the private and public sectors, has said AI could displace up to 3m private sector jobs in the UK. However, job losses will ultimately number in the low hundreds of thousands because the technology will also produce new jobs, the institute estimates.

Almost 130,000 people from all over the world have viewed Pope Francis’s body as the Vatican makes the final preparations for his funeral on Saturday, an event that will be attended by 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs.

St Peter’s Basilica closed at 2.30am on Friday and reopened three hours later to accommodate the last of the huge crowds of mourners who had waited patiently to pay their respects to Francis, who died at the age of 88 on Monday after a stroke. The coffin will be sealed at 8pm in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.

Many of the funeral guests, including the US president, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will arrive in Rome on Friday.

At least 130 other foreign delegations will be heading to the Italian capital, including Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prince of Wales.

After four days of silence, the Israeli prime minister offered his condolences to the pontiff, who had repeatedly condemned the war in Gaza.

“The State of Israel expresses its deepest condolences to the Catholic church and the Catholic community worldwide at the passing of Pope Francis,” Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X. “May he rest in peace.”

Israel is not sending a senior official to the funeral, although its ambassador in Rome will attend.

The funeral requires a huge and complex security operation in the Vatican and Rome involving thousands of Italian police and military, as well the Vatican’s Swiss Guards, the smallest army in the world. Soldiers in St Peter’s Square have been equipped with guns that shoot down drones, while rooftop snipers and fighter jets are on standby.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo running the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected, will preside over the so-called rite of the sealing of the coffin on Friday evening.

Francis’s funeral mass will begin at 10am in St Peter’s Square on Saturday and is expected to attract 200,000 pilgrims. His simple wooden coffin will then be driven slowly to Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, about 2.5 miles away in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood.

Francis will be buried in the ground, his undecorated tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus. People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning.

The funeral mass will be led by the Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college of cardinals, in what is expected to be a solemn ceremony.

“What surprised me was how determined he was to serve the church and love his people with all his energy, to the very end,” the cardinal said in an interview with La Repubblica published on Friday.

Amid the funeral planning, speculation is rife about who will succeed Francis. Cardinals 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.

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, had an unsecured internet connection set up in his Pentagon office so that he could bypass government security protocols and use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told the Associated Press.

ABC News also reported that Hegseth had what is known as a “dirty line” – what IT professionals call a commercial internet line that is used to connect to websites blocked by the Pentagon’s unclassified and classified lines. Defense department computers connect to the internet through two different systems: SiprNet – or secure internet protocol router network, which is the Pentagon’s network for classified information – and NiprNet – the non-classified internet protocol router network, which handles unclassified information.

The fact that Hegseth was evading Pentagon security filters to connect to the internet this way raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.

Sources told the AP that at times there were three computers around Hegseth’s desk – a personal computer; another for classified information; and a third for sensitive defense information. Because electronic devices are vulnerable to spyware, no one is supposed to have them inside the defense secretary’s office.

The latest reporting continues a pattern of leaks about Hegseth’s use of Signal to text sensitive military information to a circle of family and friends. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Hegseth, a former Fox weekend anchor, directed the installation of Signal on a desktop computer in his Pentagon office.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told news outlets: “We can confirm that the secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

Earlier this week, the Guardian confirmed a New York Times report that Hegseth had shared sensitive operational information about strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on a private Signal group chat he set up himself to communicate with his wife, brother, personal lawyer and nine associates.

In 2016, when it was reported that Hillary Clinton used a private email server to conduct official business when she was secretary of state, Hegseth told Fox News that “any security professional – military, government or otherwise – would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct, and criminally prosecuted. The fact that she wouldn’t be held accountable for this, I think blows the mind of anyone who’s held our secrets dear, who’s had a top secret clearance, like I have.”