Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump met at the Vatican ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral – their first face-to-face encounter since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.

The pair were pictured locked in deep discussion, minutes before the late pontiff’s funeral was due to start.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting in St Peter’s Basilica as “very productive” and Zelensky later called it “very symbolic” with the “potential to become historic”.

After leaving Rome later in the day, Trump took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, questioning his willingness to end the war after Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv earlier this week.

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Posting on his social media account, Trump said there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”, adding: “It makes me think that maybe he [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”

He had previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” following Friday’s talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.

The Kremlin meanwhile said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed to Witkoff Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”.

Trump and Zelensky’s sit down in Rome was the first time the leaders had come face-to-face since their White House meeting at the end of February, when Trump told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”. Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But the White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Two images were released of the meeting, showing the US leader in a blue suit and Ukrainian president in a black top and trousers, sitting opposite each other in intense conversation.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted an image of the meeting on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, his hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

The implication was that the prime minister and French president had helped to bring the two together, against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.

After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.

During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.

Zelensky, however, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, home to the French embassy to the Holy See.

He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence, as well as holding separate talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In a post on X, Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.

During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “gambling with World War Three” by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.

Pope Francis has been buried in Rome after a funeral ceremony and procession attended by hundreds of thousands of people and many heads of state.

The first South American pontiff passed away on Monday aged 88, marking the end of a 12-year pontificate.

As the Italian capital woke up to a hazy morning, teenage pilgrims, nuns and priests of all denominations filed silently down the streets leading to the Vatican.

Many of the streets around St Peter’s Basilica were closed – both to allow the flow of visitors and for security reasons, as more than a hundred foreign dignitaries were expected to join the funeral mass.

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More than 8,000 Italian police of different branches were out in force, as well as firefighters, medics, canine unit handlers, volunteers, members of the armed forces and even park guards.

Many had been called in from all sides of Italy to be in Rome today – resulting in a rather joyous blend of accents from across the country, from the Sicilian to the Milanese.

By 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) much of the square was already full.

Jessica, 22 and from Mexico, and Cyril, 20 and from the US, had arrived at dawn to secure a front row spot to the funeral mass.

“We never thought we’d be this close. We sacrificed a little sleep to be here but it’s worth it,” said Jessica.

She’s a Catholic and said her relatives in Mexico would “never believe it” when she told them she had been at the Vatican for the Pope’s funeral.

As heads of state and foreign dignitaries took their places to the right of the altar, hundreds of photographers in the press area on the roof of the colonnade snapped their cameras furiously, hoping to capture a candid image of US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose last meeting in February gave rise to a combative exchange in the Oval Office.

But soon after, as a striking photo of the two men sitting on two chairs inside St Peter’s began to circulate, it emerged that they had already met for around 15 minutes before the service began.

Later, Zelensky said the meeting “had potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

No more details were shared, but some on social media later joked that, given the setting, the meeting had been a “miracle”.

Photos showed that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron had also all met in the Vatican.

From the bright red of the clergy’s habits to the muted grey and blue of nuns’ veils to the rainbow sun hats worn by pilgrims, all morning St Peter’s Square was a riot of colours glistening in the sun.

Hymns played out on giant speakers, occasionally drowned out by the sound of helicopters flying overhead, as drones and seagulls crisscrossed over Michelangelo’s dome.

Yet the voice of 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re rang loud and clear as he presided over the mass.

The service’s structure was very similar to that of any Catholic funeral mass, although the readings were done in many different languages and all hymns were sung in Latin.

Outside St Peter’s, a crowd the Vatican later said numbered 200,000 applauded as large screens showed Zelensky take his seat. There was also applause when the Pope’s simple wooden coffin was brought out.

The crowd’s applause marked some other salient moments – such as when Cardinal Re, as part of his homily, remembered the Pope’s commitment to migrants and peace.

He mentioned that the Pope’s first trip had been to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the port of arrival in Europe for many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, and recalled the mass the Pope celebrated at the US-Mexico border.

“War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone.”

The cardinal emphasised that Pope Francis had repeatedly urged the world to “build bridges, not walls”.

“It was good to hear that on a day when so many heads of state were on St Peter’s Square,” a woman called Maria told the BBC. She and her friend Grazia had flown in from Sardinia especially for the funeral.

“It was a message especially for them, I think, because it’s them who decide whether there’s going to be war or peace, not us… Let’s hope something made it through to them.”

“Otherwise them being here was just pure hypocrisy,” added Grazia.

During communion, a procession of white-clad priests made its way down St Peter’s Square, carrying golden chalices full of wafers for communion, as many in the large crowd moved forward to receive the hosts.

Soon after, Cardinal Re blessed the Pope’s coffin with holy water, before burning incense in a thurible – a symbol of cleansing – and the basilica’s bells tolled three times after the blessing of the coffin was carried out.

After some brief mingling, world leaders started making their way out of the basilica. Their motorcades then filed out of the Vatican.

Within an hour Trump was reported to be back on Air Force One, while other leaders held various informal meetings in Rome.

Meanwhile, the Pope’s coffin was carried through Rome in a slow procession to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.

Authorities said 140,000 had lined the streets, clapping and waving as the hearse – a repurposed white popemobile – crossed the Tiber river and drove past some of Rome’s most recognisable sights: the Colosseum, the Forum and the Altare della Patria national monument on Piazza Venezia.

Once the coffin reached Santa Maria Maggiore, it was taken inside and the live broadcast ceased.

Pope Francis was buried in the righthand side of the church, near a beloved icon of the Virgin Mary, at around 15:00.

Visitors, pilgrims and the clergy vacated St Peter’s Square quickly. Many could be seen minutes later in the numerous cafes, restaurants and pizzerias of the historic Borgo Pio neighbourhood nearby.

Grazia from Sardinia said the funeral had made a big impression on her.

“It was wonderful to meet in a single square with people who come from every corner of the world and to live a shared moment. This is the legacy of the Pope,” she said.

Officials said the day had unfolded without any major incidents.

“Four hundred thousand people shared a historic and emotional moment, and thanks to everyone’s commitment the day took place in a solemn and serene way, without critical issues,” said the head of the Civil Protection, Fabio Ciciliano.

The city of Rome and the Catholics of the world will now be preparing for the next momentous event – the conclave, which will select the next Pope.

A date has not yet been set but it is thought it could start as early as 5 or 6 May, after the Novemdiales – the mandatory nine days of mourning – are over.

With 135 cardinals set to attend, it will be the largest conclave in modern history and one of the most unpredictable.

Over the past few days, cardinals wandering around Rome were hounded by journalists trying to get a steer on what the conclave might yield.

After the funeral, too, the Cardinal of Tonga Soane Patita Paini Mafi was approached by the media as he made his way out of St Peter’s Square.

After a South American pope, is it time for an Asian one, he was asked.

Cardinal Mafi laughed and pointed to the sky. “Only He knows,” he said.

The death of Virginia Giuffre will leave questions that are now likely to remain unanswered.

Her name will always be associated with the scandals and criminality surrounding the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his circle – with Ms Giuffre one of the most prominent among his accusers, revealing the trafficking and sexual exploitation of young women.

The photo of her and Prince Andrew, taken in London in 2001, became emblematic of the royal’s entanglement with Epstein and was central to his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.

The origins of the picture remain uncertain. But Ms Giuffre’s death adds another layer to the mystery of what must have inadvertently become one of the most widely viewed photos in royal history.

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Epstein – who was said to have taken the photo – died in jail facing sex trafficking charges.

Ghislaine Maxwell – who helped him abuse young girls and is pictured to the right of Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre – is in prison in the US. Prince Andrew has stepped down from all public duties. And Virginia Giuffre, a smiling teenager in the photo, is now dead.

Ms Giuffre – who was born in the US – died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia aged 41, her family said on Friday.

Prince Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing involving Ms Giuffre.

They reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, in which Prince Andrew paid an undisclosed amount of money.

A statement with the settlement expressed regret on his part – but contained no admission of liability or an apology. Prince Andrew has always denied all the accusations against him.

The prospect of Prince Andrew facing a court hearing in New York was averted by the settlement, but it had been a huge problem for the Royal Family, and Prince Andrew was swiftly removed from all official public roles.

His reputation has never recovered.

At this stage, there is still much that is not known about Ms Giuffre’s last days or her personal circumstances.

But as her family has said, as a young woman, she had the strength to stand up to a toxic mix of power, money and privilege in the circle surrounding Epstein, that sexually exploited so many girls.

There will be suspicions the long shadow of Epstein’s poisonous misuse of wealth and influence has indirectly claimed another victim.

Ukraine has denied Russian claims that it has been forced out of Russia’s Kursk region.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of Russia’s military, said his forces had regained full control of the region, eight months after Ukrainian forces first launched a surprise incursion into the border region, while Russian President Vladimir Putin described Ukraine’s efforts as a complete failure.

Ukraine says its troops are still conducting operations in Kursk, with the military describing Russia’s claims as “propaganda tricks”.

Ukrainian forces have been in retreat in Kursk in recent months, facing 70,000 Russian troops and heavy drone attacks as part of Russia’s drive to regain the territory.

During a video conference meeting with Putin on Saturday, Gerasimov said: “Today, the last settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian forces.”

He praised what he described as the “heroism” of North Korean troops who had “provided significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.

“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov, claiming that it would pave the way for further Russian advances on other fronts.

Responding in a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” but insisted its forces were still holding positions in Kursk and continuing an incursion in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Ukraine’s incursion was launched last August as an attempt to create a buffer zone on the border between the two countries that would prevent Russian forces from being deployed on Ukraine’s eastern front line.

It comes a day after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” on ending the war, following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin this week.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. Zelensky told the BBC on Friday that he was pushing for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before any deal was struck.

Kyiv has faced growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of any deal with Moscow to end fighting, which could reportedly include giving up the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine had hoped it could use the land it had seized in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which launched its full invasion in 2022 and has currently controls around 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory.

Russia says its troops are now at the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region, located next to Kursk.

At least eight people have been killed and 750 injured in a massive explosion at one of Iran’s key ports, authorities say.

The blast took place at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, near the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.

It blew out windows and roofs of nearby buildings and destroyed cars. Residents reported feeling the impact of the blast up to 50km (31 miles) away.

Videos verified by the BBC show a fire growing in intensity before a huge explosion, with people subsequently fleeing the blast and others lying wounded on roads surrounded by smoking debris.

“The entire warehouse was filled with smoke, dust and ashes. I don’t remember if I went under the table or was thrown there by the blast,” one person who was in the area told state TV.

Aerial footage showed at least three areas ablaze and Iran’s interior minister later confirmed that the fire was spreading from one container to another. Schools and offices in the region have been ordered to remain closed on Sunday.

One private maritime risk firm said it believed the affected containers had contained solid fuel destined for ballistic missiles.

The fire was the result of “improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles”, Ambrey Intelligence said.

Ambrey said it was aware that an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025”.

The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that two vessels had shipped fuel to Iran from China.

State media quoted witnesses as saying the explosion occurred after a fire broke out and spread to unsealed containers storing “flammable materials”.

Customs officials later released a statement reported by Iranian state TV saying the explosion had probably resulted from a fire that had broken out in a hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

In a later update Ambrey quoted Iran’s National Disaster Management Organisation as saying officials had previously issued warnings to Shahid Rajaee port regarding the safe storage of chemicals.

Shahid Rajaee port is Iran’s largest and most advanced terminal, through which much of the country’s commercial shipping transits.

It is located on the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for oil cargo, and is about 20km (12 miles) west of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s major port city on its south coast and home to the Iranian Navy’s main base.

Iran’s national oil production company said the explosion at the port had “no connection” to the country’s oil refineries, fuel tanks and pipelines, local media reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed his “deep regret and sympathy” for victims. He has announced a government investigation and sent the interior minister to the region to lead it.

Saturday’s explosion coincided with the latest round of negotiations between Iranian and US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump aiming to make a deal that would prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Negotiating through Oman mediators, both sides reported that progress had been made, but Iran’s top representative said work was still needed to narrow differences. Negotiations will continue next week.

Iran has said it is open to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions easing but has insisted it will not stop enriching uranium. It insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use.

The talks this year have marked the first high-level engagement between the US and Iran since 2018, when Trump in his first term pulled out of a previous deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities and reinstated economic sanctions.

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The threat to Canada’s sovereignty from US President Donald Trump has dominated the election, but the country also faces a challenge from within. Some western Canadians, fed up with a decade of Liberal rule, are openly calling for separation.

Standing in front of a crowd of about 100 squeezed into a small event hall in the city of Lethbridge, Dennis Modry is asking locals about Alberta’s future.

Who thinks Alberta should have a bigger role in Canada, he asks? A dozen or so raise their hands.

Who thinks the province should push for a split from Canada and form its own nation? About half the crowd raise their hands.

“How many people would like Alberta to join the US?” Another show of support from half the crowd.

Mr Modry, a retired heart surgeon, is a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a grassroots organisation pushing for an independence referendum.

The possibility of a split has long been a talking point in this conservative-leaning province. But two factors have given it new momentum: Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st US state, and the subsequent boost that has given the Liberal Party in the polls ahead of Monday’s federal election.

Mr Modry told the BBC the separatist movement has grown in recent months – driven in part, he believes, by the president’s rhetoric.

“We’re not interested in that”, he said. “We’re interested in Alberta sovereignty.”

Jeffrey Rath, however – a lawyer and rancher from Calgary who is another of the project’s co-founders – was not as dismissive of Trump’s 51st state suggestion. Although he agrees independence is the priority, he could see a future where Alberta joined with the US.

“We have a lot more culturally in common with our neighbours to the south in Montana… [and] with our cousins in Texas, than we do anywhere else,” he said.

Previously on the political fringes, the possibility of a unity crisis is now being discussed out in the open.

In an opinion piece for national newspaper the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning – an Albertan considered one of the founders of the modern conservative movement in Canada – warned “large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it”.

Accusing the party of mismanaging national affairs and ignoring the priorities of western Canadians, he added: “A vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

This sense of “western alienation”, a term used to describe the feeling that the region is often overlooked by politicians in Canada’s capital, is nothing new. For decades, many in the oil and gas-rich prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskachtewan have bemoaned how they are underrepresented, despite the region’s economic significance for the country as a whole.

That resentment grew under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which brought in environmental policies some Albertans view as a direct attack on the region’s economic growth.

National polls suggest the Liberals, now under the leadership of Mark Carney, could be headed for their fourth consecutive win come election day on Monday. That it could come in part because of a surge of support in Ontario and Quebec – the eastern provinces where so much of the population is concentrated – only adds to the regional divide.

Judy Schneider, whose husband works in the oil industry in Calgary, told the BBC she would vote “yes” in an independence referendum.

She said she didn’t see Carney, who spent much of the last decade away from Canada but was raised in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, as a westerner.

“He can come and say ‘I’m from Alberta,’ but is he?” Ms Schneider said.

An independent Alberta remains an unlikely prospect – a recent Angus Reid poll suggested that only one in four Albertans would vote to leave Canada if a referendum were held now. A majority of Canadians, however, feel the issue should be taken seriously, a separate Nanos poll indicated.

Political analysts say the divide will pose a challenge to the country’s next prime minister, especially if Carney wins. And even a victory for Calgary-born Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would “not solve the imbalance that presently exists between the East and the West,” Mr Modry, the activist, said.

That wider sentiment has pushed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who leads the United Conservative Party, to strike her own path in trade talks with the US, while other provincial leaders and the federal government have co-ordinated their efforts closely. She even visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

In Canada, Smith has publicly warned of a “national unity crisis” if Alberta’s demands – which centre around repealing Trudeau-era environmental laws to accelerate oil and gas production – are not met by the new prime minister within six months of the election.

While Smith has dismissed talk of outright separation as “nonsense”, critics have accused her of stoking the flames at such a consequential time for Canada’s future.

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

Lorna Guitton, a born-and-bred Albertan and a volunteer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Lethbridge that her aim was for the province to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current union as “broken”, and believes a referendum, or the threat of it, will give Albertans “leverage” in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But Ms Guitton also dismissed any notion of it becoming a 51st US state.

“They’ve got enough of their own problems. Why would I want to be part of that?” she said. “I would rather be my own independent, sovereign province, or a province with a better deal in Canada.”

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At his ranch outside of Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Mr Rath has a different view.

As he tended to his race horses, he spoke of the political and social attitudes of free enterprise and small government that are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

“From that perspective, I would see Alberta as being a good fit within the United States,” he said.

He is currently putting together a “fact-finding” delegation to travel to Washington DC and bring the movement directly to the Trump administration.

Many voters in Alberta, however, dismiss the notion of independence altogether, even if they agree that the province has been overlooked.

Steve Lachlan from Lethbridge agrees the West lacks representation in Ottawa but said: “We already have separation, and we need to come together.”

And the Liberals are not entirely shut out from the province. Polls suggest that Alberta may send more Liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly due to changing demographics that led to the creation of new ridings in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forrester, who lives in the battleground Calgary Centre district, told the BBC he had traditionally voted Conservative but has leaned left in recent years. This time, he will vote Liberal because of the “Carney factor”.

“I feel he’s the best guy to deal with Trump,” he said. As for the separation sentiment: “I’m not worried about it.”

A miniature dachshund has been found alive and well on Kangaroo Island off the coast of Australia, more than 500 days after she first went missing.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue had been working “around the clock” to find the dog, Valerie, since she was last spotted by her owners on a November 2023 camping trip.

Georgia Gardner and her boyfriend, Joshua Fishlock, had momentarily left Valerie in a playpen at their campsite while the couple went fishing. When they returned, she was gone.

Valerie survived intense heat and avoided venomous snakes as well intense rescue efforts during her 529 days in the wilderness.

“After weeks of tireless efforts […] Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well,” Kangala said in a social media post.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue said volunteers spent 1,000-plus hours searching for Valerie, covering more than 5,000km (8,046 miles).

The effort also included surveillance cameras and a trap cage with a remote door system filled with food, Ms Gardner’s clothes and some of Valerie’s toys from home.

In the initial days after Valerie went missing, other campers spotted her underneath a parked car which startled the dog and sent her fleeing into bushland, the Washington Post reported.

Months later, island locals reported seeing a pink collar that matched Valerie’s, much to the surprise of Jared Karran, a director at Kangala.

“Of all dogs, that would be the last one I would say would survive out there, but they do have a good sense of smell,” Mr Karran said.

Ms Gardner sent rescuers a t-shirt that she had worn that helped lead to Valeries’ capture by creating “scent trail” inside the large dog trap.

In a 15-minute video on social media, Kangala directors and rescue volunteers Jared and Lisa Karran explained how the “rollercoaster” rescue transpired.

Ms Karran said they had to wait until Valerie was in the right part of the trap and calm enough to ensure she would not attempt another escape.

“She went right into the back corner, which is where we wanted her, I pressed the button, and thankfully it all worked perfectly,” Mr Karran said.

“I know people were a little bit frustrated, like ‘why is it taking so long?’ but these are the things that we were doing in the background,” he said.

Ms Karran said she wore the remnants of Ms Gardner’s clothes as she approached Valerie and sat with her until the dog was “completely calm”.

Ms Gardner said on social media after Valerie’s long-awaited rescue: “For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope.

“Sometimes good things happen to good people.”

Russian security forces say they have detained a Ukrainian spy accused of killing a senior Russian general in a car bomb attack in Moscow’s suburbs on Friday.

The FSB secret service said they had apprehended “Ukrainian special services agent Ignat Kuzi” who had “planted explosives in a Volkswagen Golf” to kill Gen Yaroslav Moskalik.

Gen Moskalik had been the deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military’s General Staff. He died after walking past the car parked outside his house in the suburb of Balashikha.

The FSB said Kuzin had rigged the car with a homemade explosive device and the bomb had then been set off remotely from Ukraine.

Ukraine has not commented on the bombing.

The FSB said the suspect had been recruited by Ukraine in 2023, and had driven to Moscow in September that year.

Russian media also reported that the FSB had released a video showing the detained man giving an apparent confession, as well as footage of his arrest and of the bomb’s components.

The Kremlin had on Friday blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying Kyiv “continues its involvement in terrorist activities inside our country”.

Gen Moskalik had represented Russia in talks with Ukraine in Paris in 2015, which resulted in the failed Minsk agreements which aimed to end the fighting in the Donbas region between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces that started in 2014.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Numerous world leaders and royals have gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral.

Among the most prominent figures at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning were Prince William, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden, Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their attendance comes at a fragile time for international diplomacy, with Trump meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky before the service.

So among the VIP attendees, who sat next to whom?

Trump was in a front-row seat near Francis’ coffin, alongside his wife Melania Trump, across the aisle from Macron and his wife Brigitte.

Intriguingly, he and First Lady Melania were sitting between two staunch supporters of Ukraine. Estonia’s President Alar Karis was to Melania’s left, and Finland’s Alexander Stubb to Trump’s right.

Estonia and Finland are both staunch allies of another man of the moment in attendance – Zelensky, who looked sombre-faced at the Vatican. He was sitting on the same row as Macron, separated by a few other dignitaries.

Zelensky, who has been locked in negotiations and public arguments with Trump in recent weeks, was just 10 seats and one aisle away from him, on the same row.

Shortly before the funeral started, the pair were pictured sitting locked in deep discussion.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as “very productive,” while Zelensky said it was “very symbolic” and had “potential to become historic”.

The VIPs were in a separate section from the hundreds of thousands of members of the public who have descended on Rome for the event.

Dignitaries were sitting on the the right-hand side of the square, next to St Peter’s Basilica.

Those with the best seats were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella, representing the country that surrounds the Vatican City state.

Behind them were reigning sovereigns, and other delegations were seated in alphabetical order in French, the official language of diplomacy, on other benches.

Representing British royalty, the Prince of Wales was sitting next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz several rows back from the front, and some distance away from Starmer.

Starmer himself sat in the fifth row with his wife Victoria.

Behind the British leader was the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Former US President Joe Biden was seen hand in hand with his wife Jill. He was sitting four rows behind Trump.

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Many European leaders, as well as royalty from European countries, were in attendance.

The Macrons watched the service closely from their front row position, and the French president shook hands with Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the proceedings, and was seen chatting with Macron.

Other political figures and royals attending the Pope’s funeral included:

• Poland President Andrzej Duda
• Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader
• Belgium King Philippe and Queen Mathilde
• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
• Croatia President Zoran Milanovic
• Ecuador President Daniel Noboa
• Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin
• Moldova President Maia Sandu
• Latvia President Edgars Rinkevics
• New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
• Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
• Queen Mary of Denmark
• Jordan King Abdullah II and Queen Rania
• Hungary President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban
• European Council President Antonio Costa

Virginia Giuffre, who became a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and the Duke of York, has been described by her family as a “fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking” after her death aged 41.

Ms Giuffre was born Virginia Roberts in California in 1983, before her family relocated to Florida. At seven, she said she was sexually abused by a family friend and her later childhood was spent in and out of foster care.

She met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 while working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. Maxwell offered her an interview for the chance to train as a massage therapist, she said, and took her to Jeffrey Epstein.

What she had expected to be a job interview was in fact the beginning of years of abuse, according to Ms Giuffre.

Ms Giuffre was taken by Epstein on private jets around the world. She told the BBC she was abused by the US financier and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to his associates.

In 2001, at the age of 17, she said Epstein brought her to London and introduced her to Prince Andrew, who she claimed sexually abused her three times. The prince, who has denied all claims against him, reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022 which contained no admission of liability or apology.

• Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Ms Giuffre said Epstein had lost interest in her when she turned 19 in 2003, as she had become too old for him.

She said she convinced the wealthy financier to pay for her to get training to become a professional masseuse and he arranged for her to take a class in Thailand. But she was also expected to bring home a Thai girl that Epstein had arranged to come to the US.

Instead, on that trip, Ms Giuffre met a man named Robert whom she fell in love with and married 10 days later.

They spent time in the US before moving to Australia, initially settling in Cairns in far north Queensland before relocating close to the western city of Perth. The pair had three children together: Christian, Noah and Emily.

Reports suggest their marriage eventually broke down. On 2 February, she allegedly breached a family violence restraining order in Ocean Reef, the town where her family lived, according to Western Australia Courts.

On 22 March she posted the following on Instagram: “My beautiful babies have no clue how much I love them and they’re being poisoned with lies.

“I miss them so very much. I have been through hell & back in my 41 years but this is incredibly hurting me worse than anything else.”

Just over a week later she posted again to say she was recovering in hospital after a “serious” vehicle collision and had “four days to live”, alongside a photo of her in hospital. Her family later said she had not intended to make the post public.

Western Australia Police disputed the severity of the crash, saying they were only able to find a report of a “minor crash” between a school bus and a car in Neergabby, about an hour north of Perth, on 24 March.

The collision was reported by the bus driver the following day, while there were no reported injuries, a police spokeswoman said.

Ms Giuffre was living at a farm in Neergabby, where she was found dead on Friday.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said in a statement, confirming her death by suicide.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”

The family added the children “were the light of her life” and that it was while holding her newborn daughter she “realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others.”

Ms Giuffre’s representative Dini von Mueffling described her as “one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Imposing statues of rams and lions used to stand in the grounds of Sudan’s National Museum – priceless artefacts from the time when Nubian rulers conquered what is now Egypt to the north, along with exquisite Christian wall paintings dating from many centuries ago.

On a typical day, groups of school children would stare in awe at this reminder of their nation’s imposing past, tourists would file through one of Khartoum’s must-sees, and on occasion concerts were held in the grounds.

But that was before war broke out two years ago.

As the Sudanese military reasserts its control over the capital, having finally chased out its rival the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the full scale of the destruction of two years of war is becoming clear.

Government ministries, banks and office blocks stand blackened and burned, while the museum – a symbol of the nation’s proud history and culture – has been particularly hard hit.

Senior officials say tens of thousands of artefacts were either destroyed or shipped off to be sold during the time the RSF was in control of central Khartoum, where the museum is situated.

“They destroyed our identity, and our history,” Ikhlas Abdel Latif Ahmed, director of museums at Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

Before the conflict, the National Museum was a gem.

Located at the very heart of Sudan – close to the Presidential Palace, and the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers – it told a story of the succession of great civilisations that inhabited this area over time.

Now, when museum officials made an inspection visit, they were greeted with shattered glass, bullet cases on the floor and traces of looting everywhere.

• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan
• BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan’s ruined capital after army victory

“The building was very unique and very beautiful,” Ms Ahmed said.

“The militia [the description Sudanese officials give to the RSF] took so many of the unique and beautiful collections, and destroyed and damaged the rest.”

Looting has been reported at other Sudanese museums and ancient sites. Last September the UN’s world heritage organisation, Unesco, warned of a “threat to culture” and urged art dealers not to import or export artefacts smuggled out of Sudan.

Before the war, the National Museum was undergoing rehabilitation, and so many of its treasures were boxed up.

That may have made it easier for the collections to be removed.

Sudanese officials say precious artefacts from the National Museum were taken away to be sold.

They strongly suspect RSF fighters took some of the valuables to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They produced no evidence. However the UN panel of experts on Sudan has reported that the RSF has been exporting significant quantities of gold to the UAE, since even before the war.

The UAE has also been widely accused of funding the RSF, although both parties have always denied these accusations.

“We had a strong room for the gold collection, they managed to open it and took all the gold,” Ms Ahmed said.

“Maybe they kept it for themselves, or maybe they traded it in the market.”

So the whereabouts of pieces like a gold collar from the pyramid of King Talakhamani at Nuri, which dates to the 5th Century BC, are unknown.

Asked about the value of what was taken, Ms Ahmed replied simply: “There is no value for the museum artefacts, it’s more expensive than you could imagine.”

The de facto government of Sudan says it will contact Interpol and Unesco to attempt to recover artefacts looted from the National Museum and elsewhere.

However recovering the artefacts seems a difficult and perhaps even dangerous task, with little immediate prospect of success.

The government, and other Sudanese observers, say the RSF’s attacks against museums, universities and buildings like the National Records Office are a conscious attempt to destroy the Sudanese state – but, again, the RSF denies this.

Amgad Farid, who runs the Fikra for Studies and Development think-tank, is particularly critical of the looting.

“The RSF’s actions transcend mere criminality,” he wrote in a piece shared by his organisation.

“They constitute a deliberate and malicious assault on Sudan’s historical identity, targeting the invaluable heritage of Nubian, Coptic, and Islamic civilisations spanning over 7,000 years, constituting a cornerstone of African and global history, enshrined within these museums.

“This is not an incidental loss amid conflict – it is a calculated endeavour to erase Sudan’s legacy, to sever its people from their past, and to plunder millennia of human history for profit.”

The story of the National Museum – taken over by armed men, its gold and valuables looted and stolen – mirrors the individual stories of so many Sudanese in this conflict: they have been forced to flee, their houses occupied, their gold stolen.

According to the UN, nearly 13 million people have been forced from their homes since the fighting began in 2023, while an estimated 150,000 people have been killed.

“The war is against the people of Sudan,” Ms Ahmed says, bemoaning the war’s human cost, as well as the unimaginable loss of centuries of heritage.

She – along with other like-minded individuals – intend to restore the National Museum and other looted institutions.

“Inshallah [God willing] we will get all our collections back,” she said.

“And we build it more beautiful than before.”

• Sudanese eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns
• The mother and children trapped between two conflicts
• Will recapture of presidential palace change course of Sudan war?
• Sudan’s ‘invisible crisis’ – where more children are fleeing war than anywhere else

When Donald Trump revealed the level of trade tariffs that countries around the world would face from the US, nations in South America breathed a sigh of relief.

Ten of the 12 states on the continent received the lowest level of 10%.

Only Guyana and Venezuela were initially hit with higher rates of 38% and 15% respectively, before these were subsequently reduced to 10%. This came as Trump decided to pause elevated rates on almost all countries for 90 days.

The exceptions are China, which has been hit with 145%, and Canada and Mexico, which have still got 25% tariffs on some exports to the US.

Commentators who describe this as a win for South America argue that the higher US tariffs on China, and on Canada and Mexico, could make South American goods more attractive to US and global buyers.

While plausible, this view oversimplifies broader global trade instability that South America is also exposed to.

Here I’ll set out this debate – starting with the potential upsides for the region.

South America is rich in commodities. Its biggest economies – Brazil and Argentina – are major exporters of soybeans and petroleum as well as, in Brazil’s case, iron ore used in steel production.

The US’s huge tariffs on Chinese goods, and China’s retaliatory 125% on US imports, may create opportunities for South American exporters.

For example, Brazil could increase agricultural exports to China to replace previous US supplies. China is already Brazil’s largest export destination, followed by the US.

There is a precedent. When Trump hit China with tariffs during his first term of office, China shifted some commodity purchases from the US to Brazil, boosting Brazilian soybean exports.

With the 2025 soybean harvest in Brazil now continuing, some are hoping for a repeat.

These include Frederico D’Avila, a farmer and ex-politician aligned with former Brazilian President Bolsonaro. Mr D’Avila was also previously a senior figure at Aprosoja, a soybean producers’ group.

He tells the BBC that President Trump’s first term was “excellent for Brazilian agriculture” as “Trump’s tariffs in that time favoured us”.

However, Juan Carlos Hallak, professor of international economics at the University of Buenos Aires, has a counterpoint. He says that raising “bilateral barriers” on commodities mostly just affects “who sells to whom”, and not financial gains for the sellers – as the prices are set globally.

So his suggestion is that South American nations shouldn’t expect more financial gains from their commodities as a result of Trump’s actions, just potentially different customers.

“The prices are [instead] affected by macroeconomic factors… for example if there is a recession,” he tells the BBC.

Yet other sectors in South America are also hoping that Trump’s actions mean they could win more global sales as countries decide to buy less from the US.

Take the Brazilian beef industry. The country’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was recently in Japan, hoping to open the Japanese market to Brazil’s beef exports.

Japan currently buys 40% of its beef from the US. But after Trump initially threatened to hit the country with 24% tariffs, Tokyo may shift to buy more meat from South America.

Other Brazilian industries, such as coffee and footwear, may gain a competitive edge over their Asian counterparts in the US market.

Brazil is the world’s biggest producer of coffee, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Colombia.

Trump initially hit Vietnam with tariffs of 46% and Indonesia with 32%. While those higher rates are now on pause, if they are reinstated in July it will make beans from those two countries significantly more expensive in the US.

This would give both Brazilian and Colombian coffee a competitive advantage in the US, where they are already the main suppliers.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s shoemakers could see more exports to the US as a result of Trump’s high tariffs on Chinese exports. Currently China is the world’s largest manufacturer of footwear while Brazil is in fifth place.

The other three nations in the top five list of the world’s largest footwear producers are India, Vietnam and Indonesia. The US initially gave India a higher tariff rate of 26%.

Uruguay’s new President Yamandú Orsi has also said that Trump’s tariffs are helping to push a trade deal between the EU and South America’s bloc, Mercosur, closer to reality.

He said that “Europe has little choice now but to lower its demands somewhat” in negotiations, as it seeks to diversify trading partners.

You may have noted a lot of “coulds” and “ifs”. That’s not just because it is early days. It’s also because the pace and scale of US trade changes are causing wider instability.

Whether the potential positives for South America outweigh the potential negatives is hard to calculate accurately, which brings me to the risks for the continent.

Firstly, 10% is still 10%. Even countries with the lower tariff rate may face reduced US demand if prices rise. This is more of a risk for imports that compete with US domestic production, such as oil, soybeans, copper, iron ore, gold, and lithium.

The US has also hit imports of aluminium and steel, from all countries, with tariffs of 25%.

Brazil is a producer of both metals and has large reserves of their raw materials – bauxite and iron ore. Meanwhile, Argentina has one of the largest aluminium producers in South America, listed company Aluar, and a smaller steel industry.

Argentine producers warn they may both lose US access and face more Chinese imports, creating increased competition for domestic producers.

“We’re worried by the diversion of what can no longer enter the US,” Carlos Vaccaro, executive director of the Argentine Steel Chamber, told the Buenos Aires Herald.

Trump’s tariff wars have also led to global commodity price volatility, with oil and copper prices seeing slumps. Copper hit a 17-month low at the start of April. This volatility could hit the economies of Chile and Peru, where copper is the top export.

Eduardo Levy Yeyati, a former chief economist at the Central Bank of Argentina, says the impact on commodity prices and global demand is a “serious headwind” for South America.

Looking ahead, Mr Yeyati says that if Brazil and Argentina do end up enjoying a big rise in exports to the US, it could result in them getting higher tariffs from Trump.

After all, Trump’s aim is to boost domestic production, not imports from other countries.

Mr Yeyati says that Trump may be equally displeased if South American nations start exporting more to China. “If Brazil fills in the US quota of goods exports to China, the US may choose to punish Brazil.”

He theorises that Trump could also try to pressure Latin America to reduce China’s footprint in the region in return for favourable treatment. China invests billions of dollars in infrastructure projects across Central and South America.

So, calling Trump’s tariffs a clear “win” or “loss” for South America oversimplifies a complex situation. Especially if Trump announces in July that every country except China, Canada and Mexico will continue at 10%.

As Mr Hallak says: “It’s very hard to predict where this is going.”

Subject to this caveat, he envisions a future where the US protects its manufacturing industries more than its agricultural goods.

But adds: “I’m not sure Latin America is ready to take advantage of those opportunities. There will be specific opportunities for sure, but something that changes the game? I don’t think so.”

Singer Amy Macdonald is approaching two decades in the music industry, but admits the disbelief at hearing her songs played on the radio will never go away.

The Scottish musician shared a moment on social media this week where she broke down after hearing her new song on BBC Radio 2.

The song, Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For, is her first single release since 2021, and she told BBC Scotland’s Reporting Scotland News at Seven programme that her emotions took her by surprise.

“That was totally off the cuff,” she said. “I knew the song was getting played on Radio 2 that morning, so I was always going to listen – it was the first play.

“I put it on and as soon as it started I got so overwhelmed.

“It’s strange to me because I have been doing this for 18 years.

“I’ve heard my song played on the radio all over the world, and it still never feels normal.”

Amy says she is glad it doesn’t.

“For me it is still incredibly exciting and I still get such a buzz from hearing my songs on the radio – it is such a big part of what I do,” she added.

The singer, from Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, launched her new album and a European tour with a fashionable pop-up gig in Glasgow’s Princes Square shopping centre.

She follows in the footsteps of other artists promoting new music with surprise gigs, but said she had to be convinced it was a good idea.

“Everybody seems to do this now – I’ve seen so many videos of Ed Sheeran appearing anywhere and everywhere this week and it’s so cool.

“I thought, people love live music, I’ll go out and play a few tunes for them and hopefully everybody goes away with a smile on their face.”

Hundreds turned out on a Friday afternoon to see the singer, best-known for hits Mr Rock And Roll and This Is The Life.

And the live gig reflected the inspiration for the new song, and album.

Amy said: “It started off about my love of live music. I’d seen a load of amazing videos of U2 playing at The Sphere in Las Vegas and thought what an incredible venue that is.

“And it got me thinking about performing live and how nothing can really replicate that.

“It was basically a song that started off about my passion for performing and seeing live music and being in a crowd and just being part of that.”

She is looking forward to touring after her last dates were hit by the Covid pandemic.

“My last album it was interrupted with cancellations and the constant rule changes so we kind of missed out on that so it feels like it has been a long time coming,” she said.

“I am excited to be back in Glasgow and I’ve got loads of festivals this summer and then a big run of dates in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, all these European places where I spend so much of my time.

“But I am just grateful that I am able to do something I love and am able to get out there and see so many people.”

The highlight is set to be her homecoming at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on 12 December.

She said: “I have always flown the flag for Scotland and Glasgow and I have always felt very loved and love performing in Scotland – it’s my home.

“We have the best fans in the world.”

As they walked through arrivals at Manchester Airport, a couple seemed to be behaving oddly towards their baby.

Something did not sit right with Border Force officers. One worried the relationship between the three was “not genuine”.

Officers pulled the couple for questioning. The man, Raphael Ossai, claimed to be the girl’s father.

He handed them a birth certificate for the baby, which showed his travelling companion, Oluwakemi Olasanoye, as the child’s mother.

But officers found a second birth certificate, hidden in the lining of the couple’s luggage. It named another woman, Raphael’s British wife, as the little girl’s mother.

It was the start of a mystery that remains unsolved – the little girl’s true identity is still not fully known.

What we do know is the child is not related to any of the adults. The girl, who we are calling Lucy, seems to have been born in rural Nigeria in September 2022, and given to an orphanage when she was just three days old.

The couple who carried her to the UK, Ossai and Olasanoye, pleaded guilty to immigration offences and were sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation.

Now Lucy has been in care in Manchester for nearly two years. The Nigerian High Commission did not engage in depth with the case despite multiple requests from the High Court.

For the last nine months the High Court in Manchester has been trying to find out who Lucy really is, as it decides what her future should be.

The court heard that on 20 June 2023, Ossai and Olasanoye unlawfully brought Lucy to the UK from Lagos, via Addis Ababa. Olasanoye had a visa to work in the UK and agreed to travel with Ossai and Lucy.

When the couple were sentenced in criminal court, it was believed that Lucy was the child of Ossai and his Nigerian-born British wife.

Ossai met his British wife in Kenya and married her in Nigeria in 2017 – but he had never been to the UK. When he applied for a visitor’s visa, he was turned down due to financial circumstances.

At the time of sentencing, the judge said the “principal motive for this offence” was to bring the baby to the UK so he and his British wife could live as a “family” with Lucy.

However during the High Court hearing, DNA tests proved Lucy is not related to either of the adults.

Documents presented to the court said that she had been born to a young student in rural Nigeria, who was not able to care for her. Her father was not known.

The papers indicated the mother had voluntarily relinquished Lucy to an orphanage.

Ossai and his British wife said they had been looking for a little girl to adopt, and he collected Lucy when she was a tiny baby.

The couple had permission to foster the little girl but not to adopt her or take her out of Nigeria.

Ossai, a music producer, took Lucy to a small flat in Lagos where he looked after her for the next nine months.

He told the court he had cared for the baby well – that he had fed her properly, played her music, and kept her safe.

But a social worker from the Children and Family Court Advisory Service CAFCASS said she believed Lucy had been neglected, underfed and under stimulated.

She had met the little girl when she was just over a year old, in October 2023.

“It was really sad when I met her,” a social worker told the court.

Giving evidence, she said it was as though the child did not realise “she was actually a person”.

“She was so lost, and not really present… she just felt so alone yet she was surrounded by people,” she added.

During an observation session, the social worker said Lucy became very “panicky” when her foster carer stood up to leave the room.

She also displayed an “extreme cry” that was “very difficult to soothe”.

When asked whether Lucy could have been traumatised by the flight or by her transfer to care, the social worker said she believes it is unlikely that alone was to blame.

She added that if Lucy had developed a secure attachment to Ossai, that would have been transferred to her foster carer.

The judge said the child lacked “basic parental attachment” but did not make a finding on the cause.

“I am sure that her being brought into this country illegally and thus separated from her carers is bound to be a significant factor,” he said.

Although Ossai has been sentenced to be deported, he and his British wife asked the High Court to assess them to care for Lucy.

Ossai said that he thought of Lucy as his daughter. His lawyers said that as the Nigerian authorities had approved him as her foster parent, the English court had no power to take her away.

Lucy had always been happy with him, Ossai said, and he thought taking her into care had upset her, especially placing her with white foster carers.

“The white may be strange to her,” he added. “When they took her from me I saw the way she was looking at them.”

His lawyers raised concerns that if Lucy were adopted by a white family, she would lose her cultural identity.

Ossai’s British wife said Lucy “is like that precious gift that I desired so much”.

She told the High Court she would do “anything and everything” for her, adding “I see her as my child”.

Both broke down and cried in court when they talked about the little girl.

The High Court Judge hearing the case, Sir Jonathan Cohen, rejected Ossai and his British wife’s application to be assessed to care for Lucy.

He said the lies they had told and the actions they had taken, especially moving Lucy from Nigeria, had “inevitably caused her very significant emotional harm”.

Lucy has been placed with several different foster carers and is residing in at least her third new home since her arrival in the UK. In April, the judge ordered she be placed for adoption in the UK and that her name be changed.

He said that Lucy “needs to have the best opportunities going forward in the world”, and that can “only be done in a placement in an alternative family”.

The judge added that she would be provided with “background” about her heritage and told what happened in her past.

He found that Ossai and his British wife had a genuine desire to adopt Lucy.

Julian Bild, an immigration lawyer for anti-trafficking charity Atleu, said in circumstances where a woman is a UK national and a child is a UK national via adoption or otherwise, “it is likely the family would be allowed to stay here”.

It is possible for a child to receive British citizenship if they are brought to and physically adopted in the UK, he said.

But he added that it is “very, very unlikely that a Nigerian could simply adopt a child to improve their immigration situation and get away with it because that would be pretty transparent”.

“A person seeking to bring a child to the UK for the purpose of adoption would first need to get a Certificate of Eligibility from the UK government before being able to do so.

“The genuineness for all of this to happen is obviously looked at very closely by the family courts, social workers and experts to ensure the arrangement is in the best interests of the child.”

The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases and therefore could not clarify whether Ossai and Olasanoye had been removed from the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that we will do everything to make sure they are not free to roam Britain’s streets, including removing them from the UK at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Since the election we’ve removed 3,594 foreign criminals, a 16% increase on the same period 12 months prior.”

The Nigerian High Commission did not respond to our requests for comment.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – set up to cut US government spending – claims to have saved, on average, more than $10bn a week since President Trump entered office.

“We’re talking about almost $200bn and rising fast,” Trump told the BBC when talking about Mr Musk’s cost-cutting drive on 23 April.

Doge’s website says it is focusing on cancelling contracts, grants and leases put in place by previous administrations, as well as tackling fraud and reducing the government workforce.

BBC Verify has looked at the agency’s biggest claimed savings, examining the figures and speaking to experts.

Our analysis found that behind some of the large numbers, there is a lack of evidence to back them up.

In October, Mr Musk pledged to cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal government budget. He subsequently halved this target and on 10 April talked about making savings of $150bn from “cutting fraud and waste” by the end of the next financial year in 2026.

The US federal budget for the last financial year was $6.75tn.

Doge publishes a running total of its estimated savings on its website – which stood at $160bn the last time the site was updated on 20 April.

However, less than 40% of this figure is broken down into individual savings.

We downloaded the data from the Doge website on 23 April and added up the total claimed savings from contracts, grants and leases.

Our analysis found only about half of these itemised savings had a link to a document or other form of evidence.

US media has also highlighted some accounting errors, including Doge mistakenly claiming to have saved $8bn from cancelling an immigration contract which in fact had a total value of $8m.

Doge says it is working to upload all receipts in a “digestible and transparent manner” and that, as of 20 April, it has posted receipts “representing around 30% of all total savings”. It also lists some receipts as being “unavailable for legal reasons”.

BBC Verify examined the four largest savings listed on the Doge website which had receipts attached.

The department claims these add up to $8.3bn, but after examining the evidence provided and speaking to people familiar with federal contracts, this figure appears to be overstated.

For three of the savings, Doge links to documents on the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). This is a database which records contracts given out by the US government.

The documents show a contract’s start and end date, the maximum amount the government has agreed to spend, and how much of that has been spent.

David Drabkin, a federal contracts expert who helped develop the FPDS database, said the maximum figure listed should be treated with caution.

“FPDS does not reflect the actual paid price until some period of time after the contract has been completed and the contract actions have been recorded,” he says.

“For example, when buying research and development into a vaccine no one really knows how much that’s going to cost – so when a price is set, it’s not a definite price but rather an upper limit.”

So if Doge counts the maximum figure, that can represent projected spending over a number of years, rather than a direct saving from the country’s yearly spending.

Doge’s largest listed individual saving is $2.9bn.

It comes from cancelling a contract – which started in 2023 under President Biden – for a facility in Texas to house up to 3,000 unaccompanied migrant children.

Doge appears to have taken the “total contract value” until 2028 – the end date listed – and subtracted the amount spent so far to get the $2.9bn figure.

But the contract was reviewed annually, meaning renewing it until 2028 was not guaranteed.

A source familiar with this contract – who spoke on condition of anonymity – told BBC Verify that Doge’s figure is “based on speculative, never-used figures” and that the actual spending depended on how many children were placed at the facility and the services they required.

“In truth, the government never incurred those costs and could never reach that ceiling amount. The real, documentable savings from early termination were approximately $153 million”, they estimated.

They say this figure comes from tallying up the $18m per month fixed running costs (for things like staffing and security at the facility) from February – when Doge announced the cut – to November – when the contract was subject to annual review.

They also told us that the site – which closed on the same day as the Doge announcement – never reached its maximum capacity of 3,000 children, and about 2,000 stayed at the Texas facility at its peak, before numbers fell significantly as border crossings decreased.

We contacted the Administration for Children and Families and the Department for Health and Human Services which awarded the contract but are yet to hear back.

The second largest saving listed by Doge comes from cancelling a contract between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and an IT company called Centennial Technologies which it claims was worth $1.9bn.

The document which Doge links to has a total contract value of $1.9bn and all of the other cost fields, including the amount already spent, are for $0.

However, Mr Drabkin told us this does not necessarily mean that nothing had been spent on the contract.

He said several government departments have poor recording keeping, meaning the amount spent during some contracts might not always be updated in a timely fashion.

• Musk to reduce Doge role after Tesla profits plunge
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The contract start date is listed as August 2024 and was estimated to run until 2031.

However, Centennial Technologies’ CEO told the New York Times that the agreement had actually been cancelled last autumn during the Biden administration.

The company did not respond to our requests for further comment.

Another IT contract, this time with the Department of Defense, is the third largest claimed saving.

Doge says $1.76bn was saved by cancelling a contract with an IT services company called A1FEDIMPACT.

On the contract document, the total value is listed as $2.4bn. An online database of government contracts called Higher Gov says this amount was the ceiling value.

Again, there is $0 recorded for the amount that had been spent at the time the contract was terminated.

It is unclear where Doge’s figure of $1.76bn comes from – we have asked the Pentagon and the supplier about it.

The fourth largest claimed saving of $1.75bn comes from cancelling a USAID grant to Gavi, a global health organisation, which campaigns to improve access to vaccines.

Doge links to a page on USASpending.gov. It shows a grant was paid to Gavi in three instalments, during the Biden administration, totalling $880m.

Gavi confirmed that $880m had been paid out by USAID but said it had not been told the grant had been terminated.

“Gavi has not received a termination notice related to this grant,” a spokesperson told us.

We have not found any evidence for the $1.75bn saving claimed by Doge, and a source familiar with the contract said it was unclear where it comes from.

We asked the USAID Office of Inspector General about the grant but it did not respond to us.

While Doge may have cut a significant amount of government spending, the lack of evidence provided for its biggest claimed savings makes it impossible to independently confirm exactly how much.

Doge does not have a press office but BBC Verify has contacted the White House to ask for more evidence of these claimed savings.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

It was all smiles in the Kremlin.

“It’s so good to see you,” gushed Steve Witkoff as he shook the hand of the Russian president.

From his broad smile you could tell that Donald Trump’s special envoy was indeed delighted to see Vladimir Putin.

In fact, he’s been seeing rather a lot of him.

This was their fourth meeting in just over two months.

In that period Witkoff has surely had more face time with Russia’s president than any other American.

The Kremlin released 27 seconds of video from the meeting. What caught my attention wasn’t so much the body language or the greetings – it was the table.

On one side sat the combined might of the Russian delegation: President Putin, flanked by his veteran foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, his envoy on foreign investment Kirill Dmitriev, plus an interpreter.

On the other side, clearly outnumbered: Witkoff and a translator.

This is not traditional diplomacy – but then again, Witkoff is not a traditional diplomat.

He is a billionaire New York real estate developer and long-time confidant of Trump – who himself is not a traditional president.

Like Trump, Witkoff has made a career in doing deals.

This is how high-level US-Russian diplomacy is being conducted now in the Trump era.

It’s how crucial decisions with potential implications for the global order are being debated.

Following this round of talks, Ushakov held a conference call for reporters. He insisted that the negotiations with Witkoff had been “constructive and very useful”.

“May I ask a question?” I began. “What are the main sticking points, the obstacles to peace in Ukraine?”

“Thank you,” Ushakov said. “We’ll end it there.” Conference call over.

From the various alleged peace proposals that have been leaked to the press, there seem to be plenty of “sticking points”. There are differences over the territorial concessions Ukraine would be required to make, security guarantees, sanctions relief for Russia and the sequencing – that is, the order in which obligations undertaken be carried out.

The day Witkoff flew to Moscow, on the edge of the city, peace was shattered.

A car bomb killed a senior Russian general.

Yaroslav Moskalik was deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff. The Kremlin accused Kyiv of assassinating him.

If that’s true, it’s a sign of how Russia’s war in Ukraine has come much closer to home.

There is no guarantee that talks between Putin and Witkoff will bring peace. And there will be concern in Kyiv and in Europe that they were not at the table.

What is clear is that Putin and Trump are determined to bring their countries closer – whatever happens with the Ukraine peace process.

For Moscow and Washington, now their watchword is co-operation.

On Friday, I attended a ceremony at a Moscow military park symbolising this.

It marked the moment, 80 years ago, when American and Soviet soldiers met on the Elbe River in the dying days of World War Two. That was a time when Russia and America were allies.

A military band played as people lined up to lay flowers at a memorial to the Meeting on the Elbe.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine put the US and Russia on opposite sides, but times are changing again.

The White House and the Kremlin are trying to repair relations. Could they secure a peace deal, one that’s acceptable to Ukraine?

“We are just re-establishing contact,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told me at the ceremony.

“We are just trying to find a way out of this terrible crisis which was created by the previous American administration. They ruined many things.”

Moscow presents itself as peacekeeper. It blames Kyiv and the “collective West” for the fighting.

And yet in February 2022, it was President Putin who ordered Russian troops to invade a sovereign neighbouring country, to force it back into Moscow’s orbit.

So much has changed, not least the attitude of the White House.

President Biden had promised to support Ukraine “for as long as we can”.

Earlier this month, Trump blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war.

“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has released interim guidance on how organisations should interpret the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex in law.

The new guidance says that, in places like hospitals, shops and restaurants, “trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities”. It also states that trans people should not be left without any facilities to use.

The EHRC said it was releasing interim guidance because “many people have questions about the judgement and what it means for them”.

Guidance on when competitive sports can be single-sex will be published in due course, the EHRC said.

Last week the Supreme Court found the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.

This means, for instance, that transgender women, who are biologically male but identify as women, can be excluded from women-only spaces.

As part of the judgement, Supreme Court judge Lord Hodge stressed that the law still gives protection against discrimination to transgender people.

The EHRC – which enforces equalities law and provides guidance to policymakers, public sector bodies and businesses – said the impact of the ruling was that “if somebody identifies as trans, they do not change sex for the purposes of the [Equality] Act, even if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC)”.

In this respect, the EHRC says, “a trans woman is a biological man” and “a trans man is a biological woman”.

The guidance also states that “in some circumstances the law also allows trans women (biological men) not to be permitted to use the men’s facilities, and trans men (biological women) not to be permitted to use the women’s facilities”.

When asked to clarify this, the EHRC pointed to a section of the Supreme Court ruling stating that trans men could be excluded from women’s facilities “where reasonable objection is taken to their presence, for example because the gender reassignment process has given them a masculine appearance or attributes to which reasonable objection might be taken” in the context of a women-only service.

The EHRC guidance adds: “However where facilities are available to both men and women, trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use.”

Akua Reindorf KC, a barrister and a Commissioner at the EHRC, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that situations where trans men could be excluded from women’s facilities would be decided on a “case-by-case” basis.

She said there “should never be a situation where a trans person is left without a toilet to use”.

But, citing the example of a rape crisis counselling session, she said a trans man could be “excluded properly and lawfully from that because of the alarm that it may cause to vulnerable women to share that space with somebody who to all intents and purposes appears to be a man”.

Where possible, mixed-sex toilets, washing or changing facilities should be provided in addition to sufficient single-sex facilities, according to the guidance.

Alternatively, the guidance says it is possible to have toilet, washing or changing facilities which can be used by all, provided they are “in lockable rooms (not cubicles)” and intended to be used by one person at a time. One such example might be a single toilet in a small business such as a café.

In schools, it says: “Pupils who identify as trans girls (biological boys) should not be permitted to use the girls’ toilet or changing facilities, and pupils who identify as trans boys (biological girls) should not be permitted to use the boys’ toilet or changing facilities. Suitable alternative provisions may be required.”

In associations – groups or clubs with more than 25 members – the EHRC says “a women-only or lesbian-only association should not admit trans women (biological men), and a men-only or gay men-only association should not admit trans men (biological women)”.

The EHRC says the interim guidance, published online on Friday evening, is intended to highlight the main consequences of the Supreme Court judgement.

“Employers and other duty-bearers must follow the law and should take appropriate specialist legal advice where necessary,” it adds.

A two-week consultation to seek views from “affected stakeholders” is expected to be launched in May.

The EHRC aims to provide an updated code of practice to the government for ministerial approval by the end of June.

A government spokesperson said: “We welcome the ruling and the clarity it brings for women, and service providers.

“We will review and update policy wherever necessary to ensure it complies with the latest legal requirements.”

A spokesman for the Scottish government said it was “keen to work with EHRC to ensure consistent, inclusive and comprehensive guidance is in place following the Supreme Court judgement” and would meet the body to “discuss further”.

The Trump administration is restoring visas for hundreds of foreign students who had their legal status abruptly terminated stoking panic among many who feared immediate deportation, government officials have confirmed.

US Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Kurlan told a federal court that immigration officials are now working on a new system for reviewing and terminating visas for international students.

The announcement follows more than 100 lawsuits filed by students who were abruptly stripped of their legal right to study in US universities.

An estimated 1,800 students and 280 universities have been impacted, according to a tally from Inside Higher Ed.

Many affected students appeared to have participated in political protests or have had previous criminal charges, such as driving infractions.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously said the administration would terminate status for people whose actions the administration believes run counter to US interests.

The policy has caused widespread fear and confusion across hundreds of US universities, with some students opting to leave the country pre-emptively rather than face possible detention or deportation.

The Justice Department told the court on Friday that records would be restored in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS), which tracks foreign students’ compliance with their visas.

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) still maintains the authority to terminate a SEVIS record for other reasons.

For example, “if a student fails to maintain his or her nonimmigrant status after the record is reactivated, or engages in other unlawful activity that would render him or her removable from the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act”, Kurlan told a federal court in California, NBC News reported.

Attorneys for the students have argued that the revocations violate the students’ legal rights, and the fear of detention has prevented them from fulfilling their studies.

Attorneys representing students across the country said that their clients had seen their records restored in recent days, according to NBC News.

Losing their SEVIS records left students vulnerable to immigration actions – and possible detention and deportation, according to Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.

“What I’m hearing is that this is a reprieve for many students who have had their status reinstated in SEVIS,” Prof Mukherjee said. “But this doesn’t mean this ordeal is over for the students who have had their records terminated.”

The Justice Department and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge and charged her with obstruction for allegedly trying to help an undocumented immigrant evade arrest.

Announcing her arrest, FBI director Kash Patel accused Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan of “intentionally misdirecting” immigration agents away from a Mexican man they were trying to arrest last week.

“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public,” Patel wrote on X.

During a preliminary court hearing on Friday, Dugan’s lawyer said she “wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety”.

The judge has been charged with obstruction and concealing an individual to avoid arrest, and faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Dugan was released on her own recognisance pending a hearing on 15 May.

The charges stem from events that played out in Dugan’s courtroom last week.

On 17 April, an immigration judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national facing three misdemeanour battery counts stemming from a domestic fight, according to court documents filed in the case by the FBI.

The following day, Flores-Ruiz appeared in the Milwaukee court for a scheduled hearing, and six officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency arrived at the courthouse to make the arrest.

The agents identified themselves to court officials and waited outside Dugan’s courtroom, but according to the FBI affidavit, the judge became “visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers” when she learned of their presence.

In the hallway outside the court, Dugan and the unnamed agents then argued over the type of arrest warrant that had been issued, before the judge instructed them to report to the office of the county’s chief judge.

While several agents were in the office, affidavit says, the judge ushered Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door meant for jury members leading out of the courtroom.

But two agents remained near the courtroom and spotted Flores-Ruiz attempting to escape, the affidavit says.

Flores-Ruiz, who authorities say had previously been deported from the US in 2013, managed to exit the courthouse but was arrested just minutes later after a short foot chase.

Dugan’s arrest came one day after a former judge in New Mexico was taken into custody accused of harbouring an alleged Venezuelan gang member in his home.

“I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law and they are not,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an interview on Friday.

“And if you are destroying evidence, if you are obstructing justice, when you have victims sitting in a courtroom of domestic violence, and you’re escorting a criminal defendant out a back door, it will not be tolerated.”

Reaction to the arrest largely split along partisan lines.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, called it a “gravely serious and drastic move”.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in a statement. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this President is putting those basic democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson also criticised the arrest, calling it “showboating” and warned that it would have a “chilling effect” on court proceedings.

Wisconsin’s Republican US Senator, Ron Johnson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “I would advise everyone to cooperate with federal law enforcement and not endanger them and the public by obstructing their efforts to arrest criminals and illegal aliens.”

Dugan was first elected as a judge in 2016, and was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2022.

Judicial elections in Wisconsin are non-partisan, however Dugan was endorsed by Milwaukee’s Democratic mayor.

The obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the concealment charges can be punished by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

In 2019, during the first Trump administration, a judge in Massachusetts was arrested after she allowed an undocumented immigrant defendant to retrieve property from a lockup in the courtroom. The immigrant then left the courtroom.

Judge Shelley M Richmond Joseph was charged with obstruction, but the charges were dropped in 2022, although she still faces an ongoing ethics complaint stemming from the incident.

Chimpanzees comfort each other when in distress, despite typically being referred to as “violent” and “despotic” when compared to other apes.

Researchers at Durham University found that chimpanzees were as likely to console one another as bonobos – even though the latter is typically considered the more “empathic” primate.

The team logged 1,400 hours of observation across the two species, focusing on how individuals reacted to a group member who had experienced distress, such as a fight.

Among both bonobos and chimpanzees, the research concluded older apes were less likely to offer consolation than their younger counterparts.

The findings suggested that emotional sensitivity to others emerges early in ape development.

In bonobos, younger individuals are the most likely to console others and be consoled.

In chimpanzees, young males and close social partners consoled the most.

Both species consoled each other in a similar way to humans, with behaviours including embracing, hand-holding, and touching.

Lead researcher, Dr Jake Brooker, said: “For a long time, bonobos have been thought of as the more empathic ape, whilst chimpanzees are typically spoken about as the violent, despotic ape.

“However, we found that chimpanzees are just as likely to console one another as bonobos.

It is the first time the two species’ approach to consolation has been directly compared, Durham University said.

Researchers studied 40 bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 50 chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia.

The work was funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

The team said further research of this kind could shed light on the evolution of human social behaviour.

Royal Navy ships based in Plymouth and Portsmouth were deployed to track Russian warships through British waters this week, a navy spokesperson has said.

Plymouth-based HMS St Albans, a Type-23 frigate, monitored the Admiral Golovoko as it sailed east through the English Channel and launched a Merlin helicopter to gather information from the air.

Portsmouth-based patrol ship HMS Mersey tracked RFN Soobrazitelny as it sailed west.

HMS Alban’s commanding officer, Cdr Matt Teare, said the “regularity of Russian activity around the United Kingdom reinforces the vital importance of continuous integration with our allies and partners”.

HMS Albans was also involved in a three-day operation to monitor the Russian Steregushchiy-class corvette Stoikiy earlier this month, the navy said.

Cdr Teare said the frigate “is at very high readiness to operate whenever, and wherever, the nation needs us in the protection of our home and the waters surrounding it”.

He added he was “extremely proud” of his crew’s professionalism and “tireless dedication to keeping our nation safe”.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth-based patrol HMS Mersey tracked RFN Soobrazitelny as the corvette sailed west, supported by Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker RFA Tidesurge.

Russian tanker Kola was also monitored heading in the same direction in a coordinated effort with the Joint Maritime Security Centre.

XX

Donald Trump has questioned Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war in Ukraine following his meeting with the country’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.

Posting on social media after leaving Rome, Trump said he feared Putin was “tapping me along” after Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv earlier this week, adding there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”.

Earlier in the day Trump and Zelensky were seen in deep discussion in St Peter’s Basilica shortly before the funeral began.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting with Zelensky as “very productive”. The Ukrainian president said it had the “potential to become historic”.

It was Trump’s first face-to-face encounter with the Ukrainian president since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.

Writing on his Truth Social account, Trump said the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities “makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”.

Trump had previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” following Friday’s three-hour talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.

The Kremlin meanwhile said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed to Witkoff Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions”.

Trump and Zelensky’s sit down in Rome was the first time the leaders had come face-to-face since their White House meeting, when Trump told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”. Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But the White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Two images were released of the meeting, showing the US leader in a blue suit and Ukrainian president in a black top and trousers, sitting opposite each other in intense conversation.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted an image of the meeting on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, his hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

The implication was that the prime minister and French president had helped to bring the two together, against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.

After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.

• Thousands line streets of Rome as Pope Francis laid to rest
• Pope Francis’ funeral is chance for ‘brush-by’ diplomacy

During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.

Zelensky, however, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, home to the French embassy to the Holy See.

He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence, as well as holding separate talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In a post on X, Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.

During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “gambling with World War Three” by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.

At least eight people have been killed and 750 injured in a massive explosion at one of Iran’s key ports, authorities say.

The blast took place at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, near the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.

It blew out windows and roofs of nearby buildings and destroyed cars. Residents reported feeling the impact of the blast up to 50km (31 miles) away.

Videos verified by the BBC show a fire growing in intensity before a huge explosion, with people subsequently fleeing the blast and others lying wounded on roads surrounded by smoking debris.

“The entire warehouse was filled with smoke, dust and ashes. I don’t remember if I went under the table or was thrown there by the blast,” one person who was in the area told state TV.

Aerial footage showed at least three areas ablaze and Iran’s interior minister later confirmed that the fire was spreading from one container to another. Schools and offices in the region have been ordered to remain closed on Sunday.

One private maritime risk firm said it believed the affected containers had contained solid fuel destined for ballistic missiles.

The fire was the result of “improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles”, Ambrey Intelligence said.

Ambrey said it was aware that an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025”.

The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that two vessels had shipped fuel to Iran from China.

State media quoted witnesses as saying the explosion occurred after a fire broke out and spread to unsealed containers storing “flammable materials”.

Customs officials later released a statement reported by Iranian state TV saying the explosion had probably resulted from a fire that had broken out in a hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

In a later update Ambrey quoted Iran’s National Disaster Management Organisation as saying officials had previously issued warnings to Shahid Rajaee port regarding the safe storage of chemicals.

Shahid Rajaee port is Iran’s largest and most advanced terminal, through which much of the country’s commercial shipping transits.

It is located on the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for oil cargo, and is about 20km (12 miles) west of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s major port city on its south coast and home to the Iranian Navy’s main base.

Iran’s national oil production company said the explosion at the port had “no connection” to the country’s oil refineries, fuel tanks and pipelines, local media reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed his “deep regret and sympathy” for victims. He has announced a government investigation and sent the interior minister to the region to lead it.

Saturday’s explosion coincided with the latest round of negotiations between Iranian and US officials on Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump aiming to make a deal that would prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Negotiating through Oman mediators, both sides reported that progress had been made, but Iran’s top representative said work was still needed to narrow differences. Negotiations will continue next week.

Iran has said it is open to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions easing but has insisted it will not stop enriching uranium. It insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use.

The talks this year have marked the first high-level engagement between the US and Iran since 2018, when Trump in his first term pulled out of a previous deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities and reinstated economic sanctions.

• What is Iran’s nuclear programme and what does the US want?

The threat to Canada’s sovereignty from US President Donald Trump has dominated the election, but the country also faces a challenge from within. Some western Canadians, fed up with a decade of Liberal rule, are openly calling for separation.

Standing in front of a crowd of about 100 squeezed into a small event hall in the city of Lethbridge, Dennis Modry is asking locals about Alberta’s future.

Who thinks Alberta should have a bigger role in Canada, he asks? A dozen or so raise their hands.

Who thinks the province should push for a split from Canada and form its own nation? About half the crowd raise their hands.

“How many people would like Alberta to join the US?” Another show of support from half the crowd.

Mr Modry, a retired heart surgeon, is a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a grassroots organisation pushing for an independence referendum.

The possibility of a split has long been a talking point in this conservative-leaning province. But two factors have given it new momentum: Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st US state, and the subsequent boost that has given the Liberal Party in the polls ahead of Monday’s federal election.

Mr Modry told the BBC the separatist movement has grown in recent months – driven in part, he believes, by the president’s rhetoric.

“We’re not interested in that”, he said. “We’re interested in Alberta sovereignty.”

Jeffrey Rath, however – a lawyer and rancher from Calgary who is another of the project’s co-founders – was not as dismissive of Trump’s 51st state suggestion. Although he agrees independence is the priority, he could see a future where Alberta joined with the US.

“We have a lot more culturally in common with our neighbours to the south in Montana… [and] with our cousins in Texas, than we do anywhere else,” he said.

Previously on the political fringes, the possibility of a unity crisis is now being discussed out in the open.

In an opinion piece for national newspaper the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning – an Albertan considered one of the founders of the modern conservative movement in Canada – warned “large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it”.

Accusing the party of mismanaging national affairs and ignoring the priorities of western Canadians, he added: “A vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

This sense of “western alienation”, a term used to describe the feeling that the region is often overlooked by politicians in Canada’s capital, is nothing new. For decades, many in the oil and gas-rich prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskachtewan have bemoaned how they are underrepresented, despite the region’s economic significance for the country as a whole.

That resentment grew under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, which brought in environmental policies some Albertans view as a direct attack on the region’s economic growth.

National polls suggest the Liberals, now under the leadership of Mark Carney, could be headed for their fourth consecutive win come election day on Monday. That it could come in part because of a surge of support in Ontario and Quebec – the eastern provinces where so much of the population is concentrated – only adds to the regional divide.

Judy Schneider, whose husband works in the oil industry in Calgary, told the BBC she would vote “yes” in an independence referendum.

She said she didn’t see Carney, who spent much of the last decade away from Canada but was raised in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, as a westerner.

“He can come and say ‘I’m from Alberta,’ but is he?” Ms Schneider said.

An independent Alberta remains an unlikely prospect – a recent Angus Reid poll suggested that only one in four Albertans would vote to leave Canada if a referendum were held now. A majority of Canadians, however, feel the issue should be taken seriously, a separate Nanos poll indicated.

Political analysts say the divide will pose a challenge to the country’s next prime minister, especially if Carney wins. And even a victory for Calgary-born Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would “not solve the imbalance that presently exists between the East and the West,” Mr Modry, the activist, said.

That wider sentiment has pushed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who leads the United Conservative Party, to strike her own path in trade talks with the US, while other provincial leaders and the federal government have co-ordinated their efforts closely. She even visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

In Canada, Smith has publicly warned of a “national unity crisis” if Alberta’s demands – which centre around repealing Trudeau-era environmental laws to accelerate oil and gas production – are not met by the new prime minister within six months of the election.

While Smith has dismissed talk of outright separation as “nonsense”, critics have accused her of stoking the flames at such a consequential time for Canada’s future.

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

Lorna Guitton, a born-and-bred Albertan and a volunteer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Lethbridge that her aim was for the province to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current union as “broken”, and believes a referendum, or the threat of it, will give Albertans “leverage” in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But Ms Guitton also dismissed any notion of it becoming a 51st US state.

“They’ve got enough of their own problems. Why would I want to be part of that?” she said. “I would rather be my own independent, sovereign province, or a province with a better deal in Canada.”

• Patriotism surges in Quebec as Trump rattles Canada
• Who’s who in Canada’s federal election
• Canada’s top candidates talk up fossil fuels as climate slips down agenda

At his ranch outside of Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Mr Rath has a different view.

As he tended to his race horses, he spoke of the political and social attitudes of free enterprise and small government that are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

“From that perspective, I would see Alberta as being a good fit within the United States,” he said.

He is currently putting together a “fact-finding” delegation to travel to Washington DC and bring the movement directly to the Trump administration.

Many voters in Alberta, however, dismiss the notion of independence altogether, even if they agree that the province has been overlooked.

Steve Lachlan from Lethbridge agrees the West lacks representation in Ottawa but said: “We already have separation, and we need to come together.”

And the Liberals are not entirely shut out from the province. Polls suggest that Alberta may send more Liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly due to changing demographics that led to the creation of new ridings in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forrester, who lives in the battleground Calgary Centre district, told the BBC he had traditionally voted Conservative but has leaned left in recent years. This time, he will vote Liberal because of the “Carney factor”.

“I feel he’s the best guy to deal with Trump,” he said. As for the separation sentiment: “I’m not worried about it.”

The death of Virginia Giuffre will leave questions that are now likely to remain unanswered.

Her name will always be associated with the scandals and criminality surrounding the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his circle – with Ms Giuffre one of the most prominent among his accusers, revealing the trafficking and sexual exploitation of young women.

The photo of her and Prince Andrew, taken in London in 2001, became emblematic of the royal’s entanglement with Epstein and was central to his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.

The origins of the picture remain uncertain. But Ms Giuffre’s death adds another layer to the mystery of what must have inadvertently become one of the most widely viewed photos in royal history.

• Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies
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Epstein – who was said to have taken the photo – died in jail facing sex trafficking charges.

Ghislaine Maxwell – who helped him abuse young girls and is pictured to the right of Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre – is in prison in the US. Prince Andrew has stepped down from all public duties. And Virginia Giuffre, a smiling teenager in the photo, is now dead.

Ms Giuffre – who was born in the US – died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia aged 41, her family said on Friday.

Prince Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing involving Ms Giuffre.

They reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, in which Prince Andrew paid an undisclosed amount of money.

A statement with the settlement expressed regret on his part – but contained no admission of liability or an apology. Prince Andrew has always denied all the accusations against him.

The prospect of Prince Andrew facing a court hearing in New York was averted by the settlement, but it had been a huge problem for the Royal Family, and Prince Andrew was swiftly removed from all official public roles.

His reputation has never recovered.

At this stage, there is still much that is not known about Ms Giuffre’s last days or her personal circumstances.

But as her family has said, as a young woman, she had the strength to stand up to a toxic mix of power, money and privilege in the circle surrounding Epstein, that sexually exploited so many girls.

There will be suspicions the long shadow of Epstein’s poisonous misuse of wealth and influence has indirectly claimed another victim.

Numerous world leaders and royals have gathered in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral.

Among the most prominent figures at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning were Prince William, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden, Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their attendance comes at a fragile time for international diplomacy, with Trump meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky before the service.

So among the VIP attendees, who sat next to whom?

Trump was in a front-row seat near Francis’ coffin, alongside his wife Melania Trump, across the aisle from Macron and his wife Brigitte.

Intriguingly, he and First Lady Melania were sitting between two staunch supporters of Ukraine. Estonia’s President Alar Karis was to Melania’s left, and Finland’s Alexander Stubb to Trump’s right.

Estonia and Finland are both staunch allies of another man of the moment in attendance – Zelensky, who looked sombre-faced at the Vatican. He was sitting on the same row as Macron, separated by a few other dignitaries.

Zelensky, who has been locked in negotiations and public arguments with Trump in recent weeks, was just 10 seats and one aisle away from him, on the same row.

Shortly before the funeral started, the pair were pictured sitting locked in deep discussion.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as “very productive,” while Zelensky said it was “very symbolic” and had “potential to become historic”.

The VIPs were in a separate section from the hundreds of thousands of members of the public who have descended on Rome for the event.

Dignitaries were sitting on the the right-hand side of the square, next to St Peter’s Basilica.

Those with the best seats were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella, representing the country that surrounds the Vatican City state.

Behind them were reigning sovereigns, and other delegations were seated in alphabetical order in French, the official language of diplomacy, on other benches.

Representing British royalty, the Prince of Wales was sitting next to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz several rows back from the front, and some distance away from Starmer.

Starmer himself sat in the fifth row with his wife Victoria.

Behind the British leader was the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Former US President Joe Biden was seen hand in hand with his wife Jill. He was sitting four rows behind Trump.

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Many European leaders, as well as royalty from European countries, were in attendance.

The Macrons watched the service closely from their front row position, and the French president shook hands with Trump.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at the proceedings, and was seen chatting with Macron.

Other political figures and royals attending the Pope’s funeral included:

• Poland President Andrzej Duda
• Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader
• Belgium King Philippe and Queen Mathilde
• German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
• Croatia President Zoran Milanovic
• Ecuador President Daniel Noboa
• Ireland Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin
• Moldova President Maia Sandu
• Latvia President Edgars Rinkevics
• New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
• Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
• Queen Mary of Denmark
• Jordan King Abdullah II and Queen Rania
• Hungary President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban
• European Council President Antonio Costa

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, has died by suicide aged 41, her family has said.

Ms Giuffre was one of the most outspoken accusers of convicted sex offenders Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend. She alleged they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17, which Prince Andrew has strenuously denied.

Relatives said in a statement on Friday that she had been a “fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse”, and that the “toll of abuse… became unbearable”.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” they said.

The statement described the mother of three “as the light that lifted so many survivors” and said she died on Friday at her farm in Western Australia.

West Australia police said they were called to a home in the Neergabby area on Friday night, where Ms Giuffre was found unresponsive.

A statement continued: “The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.”

Ms Giuffre – who was born in the US – had been living with her children and husband Robert in the suburb of North Perth, although recent reports suggested the couple had split after 22 years of marriage.

Three weeks ago, Ms Giuffre posted on Instagram to say she had been seriously injured in a car accident, which her family later said she had not intended to make public. Local police later disputed the severity of the crash.

In a statement, Ms Giuffre’s long-time spokesperson Dini von Mueffling described her as “one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.

She said Ms Giuffre was a “beacon to other survivors and victims” and that “it was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her”.

After making her abuse allegations public, Ms Giuffre became a prominent campaigner and was closely associated with the Me Too movement.

Ms Giuffre alleged that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to Prince Andrew when she was 17.

The prince, who has denied all claims against him, reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022.

The settlement included a statement in which he expressed regret for his association with Epstein but contained no admission of liability or apology.

Ms Giuffre said she became a victim of sex trafficking when she was a teenager.

She said she met Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000.

From there, she said she was introduced to American financier Epstein and alleged years of abuse by him and his associates.

Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019, where he was being held awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

He was previously convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for her role in Epstein’s trafficking and abuse.

A miniature dachshund has been found alive and well on Kangaroo Island off the coast of Australia, more than 500 days after she first went missing.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue had been working “around the clock” to find the dog, Valerie, since she was last spotted by her owners on a November 2023 camping trip.

Georgia Gardner and her boyfriend, Joshua Fishlock, had momentarily left Valerie in a playpen at their campsite while the couple went fishing. When they returned, she was gone.

Valerie survived intense heat and avoided venomous snakes as well intense rescue efforts during her 529 days in the wilderness.

“After weeks of tireless efforts […] Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well,” Kangala said in a social media post.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue said volunteers spent 1,000-plus hours searching for Valerie, covering more than 5,000km (8,046 miles).

The effort also included surveillance cameras and a trap cage with a remote door system filled with food, Ms Gardner’s clothes and some of Valerie’s toys from home.

In the initial days after Valerie went missing, other campers spotted her underneath a parked car which startled the dog and sent her fleeing into bushland, the Washington Post reported.

Months later, island locals reported seeing a pink collar that matched Valerie’s, much to the surprise of Jared Karran, a director at Kangala.

“Of all dogs, that would be the last one I would say would survive out there, but they do have a good sense of smell,” Mr Karran said.

Ms Gardner sent rescuers a t-shirt that she had worn that helped lead to Valeries’ capture by creating “scent trail” inside the large dog trap.

In a 15-minute video on social media, Kangala directors and rescue volunteers Jared and Lisa Karran explained how the “rollercoaster” rescue transpired.

Ms Karran said they had to wait until Valerie was in the right part of the trap and calm enough to ensure she would not attempt another escape.

“She went right into the back corner, which is where we wanted her, I pressed the button, and thankfully it all worked perfectly,” Mr Karran said.

“I know people were a little bit frustrated, like ‘why is it taking so long?’ but these are the things that we were doing in the background,” he said.

Ms Karran said she wore the remnants of Ms Gardner’s clothes as she approached Valerie and sat with her until the dog was “completely calm”.

Ms Gardner said on social media after Valerie’s long-awaited rescue: “For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope.

“Sometimes good things happen to good people.”

A woman who wrote on a statue using lipstick during unrest in the Brazilian capital in 2023 has been jailed for 14 years.

Debora Rodrigues took part in the unrest along with hundreds of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who attacked government buildings following his election loss the previous year.

The 29-year-old was convicted of involvement with a criminal organisation aiming to launch a coup and eliminate the democratic rule of law.

Justice Cristiano Zanin, one of a panel of five judges overlooking Rodrigues’s case, stressed she was not being tried solely for the graffiti and was convicted of multiple offences, but many in Brazil believe her sentence is too harsh.

Supporters of Bolsonaro meanwhile say the ruling is further evidence that the Supreme Court has become too powerful and partisan.

Rodrigues was arrested as part of a broader investigation into an alleged coup plot against the newly-elected President Lula da Silva.

The 39-year-old hairdresser apologised for writing “You lost, idiot” on the statue of Justice outside the Supreme Federal Court – an incident dubbed the “lipstick coup”.

She maintains that she did not take part in any violence.

“I went to the protests and I didn’t imagine that they would be so turbulent,” said Rodrigues. “I have never done anything illegal in my life”.

Rodrigues’ lawyers said that she did not enter any buildings during the riots and acted impulsively in the “heat of the moment.” She expressed regret over her actions. ​

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, presiding over the case, argued that Rodrigues “consciously and voluntarily” aligned herself with demonstrators seeking to overthrow the government.

He added that Rodrigues had admitted to taking part in anti-democratic acts in her testimony to police, and that gaps in messages on her phone suggested she had attempted to conceal evidence.

The case has become a rallying point for Bolsonaro supporters, who view Rodrigues as a victim of political persecution.

In February, a video about Rodrigues went viral on social media. The following month, Bolsonaro shared a post about her on X, calling for an amnesty for those involved in the civil unrest in 2023.

Bolsonaro is also facing criminal proceedings over the alleged coup attempt. If found guilty he faces over 40 years in prison.

Pope Francis has been buried in Rome after a funeral ceremony and procession attended by hundreds of thousands of people and many heads of state.

The first South American pontiff passed away on Monday aged 88, marking the end of a 12-year pontificate.

As the Italian capital woke up to a hazy morning, teenage pilgrims, nuns and priests of all denominations filed silently down the streets leading to the Vatican.

Many of the streets around St Peter’s Basilica were closed – both to allow the flow of visitors and for security reasons, as more than a hundred foreign dignitaries were expected to join the funeral mass.

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More than 8,000 Italian police of different branches were out in force, as well as firefighters, medics, canine unit handlers, volunteers, members of the armed forces and even park guards.

Many had been called in from all sides of Italy to be in Rome today – resulting in a rather joyous blend of accents from across the country, from the Sicilian to the Milanese.

By 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) much of the square was already full.

Jessica, 22 and from Mexico, and Cyril, 20 and from the US, had arrived at dawn to secure a front row spot to the funeral mass.

“We never thought we’d be this close. We sacrificed a little sleep to be here but it’s worth it,” said Jessica.

She’s a Catholic and said her relatives in Mexico would “never believe it” when she told them she had been at the Vatican for the Pope’s funeral.

As heads of state and foreign dignitaries took their places to the right of the altar, hundreds of photographers in the press area on the roof of the colonnade snapped their cameras furiously, hoping to capture a candid image of US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose last meeting in February gave rise to a combative exchange in the Oval Office.

But soon after, as a striking photo of the two men sitting on two chairs inside St Peter’s began to circulate, it emerged that they had already met for around 15 minutes before the service began.

Later, Zelensky said the meeting “had potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

No more details were shared, but some on social media later joked that, given the setting, the meeting had been a “miracle”.

Photos showed that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump, Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron had also all met in the Vatican.

From the bright red of the clergy’s habits to the muted grey and blue of nuns’ veils to the rainbow sun hats worn by pilgrims, all morning St Peter’s Square was a riot of colours glistening in the sun.

Hymns played out on giant speakers, occasionally drowned out by the sound of helicopters flying overhead, as drones and seagulls crisscrossed over Michelangelo’s dome.

Yet the voice of 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re rang loud and clear as he presided over the mass.

The service’s structure was very similar to that of any Catholic funeral mass, although the readings were done in many different languages and all hymns were sung in Latin.

Outside St Peter’s, a crowd the Vatican later said numbered 200,000 applauded as large screens showed Zelensky take his seat. There was also applause when the Pope’s simple wooden coffin was brought out.

The crowd’s applause marked some other salient moments – such as when Cardinal Re, as part of his homily, remembered the Pope’s commitment to migrants and peace.

He mentioned that the Pope’s first trip had been to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the port of arrival in Europe for many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, and recalled the mass the Pope celebrated at the US-Mexico border.

“War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: it is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone.”

The cardinal emphasised that Pope Francis had repeatedly urged the world to “build bridges, not walls”.

“It was good to hear that on a day when so many heads of state were on St Peter’s Square,” a woman called Maria told the BBC. She and her friend Grazia had flown in from Sardinia especially for the funeral.

“It was a message especially for them, I think, because it’s them who decide whether there’s going to be war or peace, not us… Let’s hope something made it through to them.”

“Otherwise them being here was just pure hypocrisy,” added Grazia.

During communion, a procession of white-clad priests made its way down St Peter’s Square, carrying golden chalices full of wafers for communion, as many in the large crowd moved forward to receive the hosts.

Soon after, Cardinal Re blessed the Pope’s coffin with holy water, before burning incense in a thurible – a symbol of cleansing – and the basilica’s bells tolled three times after the blessing of the coffin was carried out.

After some brief mingling, world leaders started making their way out of the basilica. Their motorcades then filed out of the Vatican.

Within an hour Trump was reported to be back on Air Force One, while other leaders held various informal meetings in Rome.

Meanwhile, the Pope’s coffin was carried through Rome in a slow procession to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.

Authorities said 140,000 had lined the streets, clapping and waving as the hearse – a repurposed white popemobile – crossed the Tiber river and drove past some of Rome’s most recognisable sights: the Colosseum, the Forum and the Altare della Patria national monument on Piazza Venezia.

Once the coffin reached Santa Maria Maggiore, it was taken inside and the live broadcast ceased.

Pope Francis was buried in the righthand side of the church, near a beloved icon of the Virgin Mary, at around 15:00.

Visitors, pilgrims and the clergy vacated St Peter’s Square quickly. Many could be seen minutes later in the numerous cafes, restaurants and pizzerias of the historic Borgo Pio neighbourhood nearby.

Grazia from Sardinia said the funeral had made a big impression on her.

“It was wonderful to meet in a single square with people who come from every corner of the world and to live a shared moment. This is the legacy of the Pope,” she said.

Officials said the day had unfolded without any major incidents.

“Four hundred thousand people shared a historic and emotional moment, and thanks to everyone’s commitment the day took place in a solemn and serene way, without critical issues,” said the head of the Civil Protection, Fabio Ciciliano.

The city of Rome and the Catholics of the world will now be preparing for the next momentous event – the conclave, which will select the next Pope.

A date has not yet been set but it is thought it could start as early as 5 or 6 May, after the Novemdiales – the mandatory nine days of mourning – are over.

With 135 cardinals set to attend, it will be the largest conclave in modern history and one of the most unpredictable.

Over the past few days, cardinals wandering around Rome were hounded by journalists trying to get a steer on what the conclave might yield.

After the funeral, too, the Cardinal of Tonga Soane Patita Paini Mafi was approached by the media as he made his way out of St Peter’s Square.

After a South American pope, is it time for an Asian one, he was asked.

Cardinal Mafi laughed and pointed to the sky. “Only He knows,” he said.

Ukraine has denied Russian claims that it has been forced out of Russia’s Kursk region.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of Russia’s military, said his forces had regained full control of the region, eight months after Ukrainian forces first launched a surprise incursion into the border region, while Russian President Vladimir Putin described Ukraine’s efforts as a complete failure.

Ukraine says its troops are still conducting operations in Kursk, with the military describing Russia’s claims as “propaganda tricks”.

Ukrainian forces have been in retreat in Kursk in recent months, facing 70,000 Russian troops and heavy drone attacks as part of Russia’s drive to regain the territory.

During a video conference meeting with Putin on Saturday, Gerasimov said: “Today, the last settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian forces.”

He praised what he described as the “heroism” of North Korean troops who had “provided significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.

“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov, claiming that it would pave the way for further Russian advances on other fronts.

Responding in a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” but insisted its forces were still holding positions in Kursk and continuing an incursion in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Ukraine’s incursion was launched last August as an attempt to create a buffer zone on the border between the two countries that would prevent Russian forces from being deployed on Ukraine’s eastern front line.

It comes a day after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” on ending the war, following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin this week.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. Zelensky told the BBC on Friday that he was pushing for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before any deal was struck.

Kyiv has faced growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of any deal with Moscow to end fighting, which could reportedly include giving up the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine had hoped it could use the land it had seized in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which launched its full invasion in 2022 and has currently controls around 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory.

Russia says its troops are now at the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region, located next to Kursk.