As bells tolled and the coffin emerged from the gloom of the basilica, a hush fell across St Peter’s Square, in keeping with traditional solemnity, but the crowd itched to break it. Death had silenced Pope Francis but those who had come to see him off were not going to stifle their love or grief. He had requested a simple burial, not a silent one.

The quiet held while 14 pallbearers placed the wooden casket on the edge of the stairs for the start of the mass and continued while cardinals streamed to one side to form a blazing red bloc. On the other side was an array of dark-suited prime ministers, presidents, princes, princesses, kings and queens.

And in front, packed all the way down Via della Conciliazione to the edge of the Tiber, crowds gathered under Rome’s azure spring sky on Saturday to bid farewell to a pope who was number 266, yet a unique one. The first South American, the first Jesuit, the first to say of gay people, “who am I to judge?”

Before his death on Easter Monday at the age of 88, Francis had simplified papal funeral rites but the Vatican still uncorked centuries of tradition and grandeur with magnificent robes, capes and headgear – from the air, the piazza resembled a shimmering quilt of black, white, scarlet, gold and purple.

And still, while Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, began the liturgy, the crowd stayed silent. Most of the mass was in Latin and punctuated with hymns and Gregorian chants. A light breeze ruffled an open gospel placed on the coffin.

Battista Re is 92, but when he launched into the homily, a warm, personalised tribute to Francis made in Italian, he suddenly sounded younger, and that was when the crowd broke into cheers and applause.

The pontiff was a pope of the people, a pastor who knew how to reach the “least among us”, a man who believed that the church was “a home for all, a home with its doors always open”, said the cardinal.

When he cited Lampedusa – the Italian island synonymous with the pope’s outreach to migrants and refugees – the applause swelled. And did so again when he mentioned Francis’s visit to the border between Mexico and the US, and recited the pope’s mantra: “Build bridges, not walls.”

The US president, Donald Trump, did not flinch, nor did Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, two leaders associated with hardline policies on migrants. They were ringed by dozens of other political leaders, and there was safety in numbers because, for all their tributes to Francis, few, if any, had heeded his exhortations to welcome migrants. It was an irony of his 12-year papacy that while he beseeched the world to open its heart, borders tightened.

For many in the crowd, the pope’s key legacy was advocacy for the vulnerable and downtrodden. “A good pope. He had a heart,” said Martin Joseph, 33, a pizza chef from India who lives in Italy. Andrej Kalamen, 47, a priest from Slovakia, said the pope abjured dogma. “He was a pastoral priest, he loved people.”

Alison Briggs-McMullen, from Northumberland in the UK, had come with her mother to Italy’s capital to celebrate her 27th birthday but felt drawn to the funeral. “It felt right to be here and be part of a momentous occasion. We’re not Catholic but here to pay our respects and soak up the atmosphere.”

Tiziana, a 69-year-old Roman, said she was not a believer in God but had faith in humanity and the goodness of Francis. “The god is inside. I’m here to be with the people, and to keep the pope company.”

She lauded the funeral planners. “Rome is not always well organised but today we are playing it well.” Others also marvelled at the city’s transformation, almost overnight, into a well-drilled host with thousands of police, giant screens, portable loos and miles of fencing and tape for the funeral procession route.

When the funeral ended, even cardinals joined in the applause as the coffin briefly returned to St Peter’s Basilica before crossing the city, a final journey in a popemobile past waving, tearful crowds, and the Colosseum, where early Christians were martyred.

Adam Woolstenhulme, a tourist from Idaho in the US, was among those lining the route. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It feels that Rome is the most important city in the world today and that this is the most important street in the entire world.”

The sentiment began to dissolve as Trump and other leaders dispersed and headed for the airport, ending the spectacle, or illusion, of global communion.

Before and after trips, Francis used to visit the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill, and it was here that he asked to be buried. As pallbearers carried the coffin inside, a sign on a building opposite caught the mood: “Grazie Francesco.” The coffin was lowered into a niche – formerly used to store candlestick holders – and the undecorated tomb was inscribed with a single word, the papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has made a new complaint to British police over allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire obstructed justice, after stating he has spoken to officers involved in the original phone-hacking inquiry.

Writing in the Guardian, Brown said one of the detectives had alleged they believed there was “significant evidence” that News Group Newspapers (NGN) deleted millions of emails to pervert the course of justice.

In the article, Brown states that the former officers told him that if they had been aware of the background to the email deletions, they would have pushed for further action.

Brown said one former officer told him: “If we had known this in 2011, we would have investigated fully and taken a different course of action including considering arrests.”

“Today I am making a criminal complaint to the Met and CPS alleging that I am, along with many others, a victim of the obstruction of the course of justice by News Group,” he writes. “This is not an allegation made lightly. It is informed by recently available evidence, and by the statements of senior officers involved in the original investigations into unlawful news gathering, who have now stated to me that they were misled.”

NGN strenuously denies any allegations of evidence destruction. It said the Crown Prosecution Service concluded in 2015 that there was no evidence that company email deletions were carried out to pervert the course of justice.

In January, NGN apologised to Prince Harry for phone hacking by journalists at its Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, and the “serious intrusion by the Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun”.

The apology was part of an out-of-court settlement to end litigation brought against NGN by the prince and Tom Watson, a former Labour deputy leader.

Brown said the settlement had “not closed an era of investigation and litigation into media corruption. It has opened it up”.

Brown’s complaint to the Metropolitan police follows details of claims made by former detectives contained in a document filed with the high court in London.

Their statements were made in support of the long-running phone-hacking litigation pursued against NGN by Harry and Watson.

The skeleton legal arguments of both sides, reported by the Guardian, were not made public at the time and the claims have not been tested at trial because of the settlement.

No admissions were made about the allegation of illegal destruction of evidence, which NGN strongly denies. The company said it would have successfully fought the allegation if the case had gone to trial.

In his piece for the Guardian, Brown accuses Will Lewis, now chief executive of the Washington Post but then a senior NGN executive, of attempting to incriminate him and Watson.

He claims a false allegation against them was used to justify the deletion of emails to officers involved in Operation Weeting, the Met investigation launched in January 2011 to examine phone-hacking allegations.

His accusation relates to documents disclosed in high court civil actions last year, which included a minute taken by the Met police of a meeting detectives held with Lewis on 8 July 2011.

In the meeting, Lewis said the company had been told of a plot involving Brown and Watson to obtain the emails of Rebekah Brooks, the then chief executive of News International, through a third party. Lewis was the company’s general manager at the time.

Brown states that one of the investigating officers has now said to him that NGN “falsely implicated Gordon Brown. If I had known this I would have made arrests for obstruction of justice.”

NGN apologised to Watson over the idea of a plot as part of the settlement of his case, stating the company now understood “this information was false”.

However, the company has said they believed at the time that the threat was genuine and would have proved this at trial. NGN planned to cite a 2011 email from Brooks, not previously made public, expressing concern about the internal security of the company’s IT systems.

NGN’s skeleton defence also noted that a range of security measures were subsequently taken. The company also refers to a letter sent in January 2011 by Watson to the then Met assistant commissioner, John Yates, disclosed ahead of trial. In it Watson claimed to have been approached by former company employees with “knowledge of the information technology arrangements of News International”, NGN claimed.

Lewis has previously strongly denied wrongdoing. He did not comment when approached by the Guardian.

In its skeleton defence, NGN strenuously rejected allegations of a cover-up. A spokesperson stated that there was a lack of contemporaneous evidence in support of the claimants’ case and that NGN had a strong a lineup of witnesses who could confirm its own position. They said the statements of two former officers with concerns were a “selective and partial consideration of the contemporaneous documents”.

According to NGN’s skeleton argument, the deletion of emails had “long been in the planning, for sound commercial, IT and practical reasons”, and that Harry and Watson’s claims in this area had drawn on “wholly unreasonable inferences from an incomplete account of the facts, many of which are taken entirely out of context”.

An NGN spokesperson said that when Operation Weeting was initiated, the company handed incriminating material to police, while officers were immediately made aware of “the steps NGN had taken in relation to its historic email archive as well as the actions it had taken to preserve relevant evidence”.

They said NGN worked alongside specialist IT police officers for months to reconstruct its electronic archives.

“The allegations of email deletion had formed part of the prosecution case in the criminal trial in 2013/14,” they said. “The investigation into News International concluded in 2015, almost 10 years ago, with a lengthy statement by the CPS deciding that no further action was to be taken in the light of there being no evidence to support an allegation of wrongdoing.”

Brown writes that the police should request a series of court documents submitted during years of litigation, including from former NGN employees and ex-police officers.

He also calls for prosecutors to step in – and for parliamentary committees to reopen their inquiries into the deletion of emails. He also asks the attorney general, Richard Hermer, to intervene.

A spokesperson for NGN said: “NGN once again strenuously denies that there was any plan to delete emails in order to conceal evidence from a police investigation.”

They said Brown was an “unreliable complainant driven by vendetta and revenge for perceived wrongs by NGN”. They said NGN figures working with police on company emails “acted throughout with the utmost integrity and at all times followed the protocol agreed with the [Metropolitan police] in order to provide access to and restore data”.

“Mr Brown’s concerns again provide an inaccurate summary of allegations dealt with in the civil proceedings, which have already been extensively investigated and litigated,” an NGN spokesperson said. “It is not uncommon for retired police officers to hold views about their failure to achieve a conviction or matters that have not gone their way in court … There are officers from the 2011 to 2015 investigations who, in possession of all the facts, would not agree.”

A Met spokesperson said: “While we acknowledge that information emerging from civil proceedings is of interest to the public and the press who may be seeing it for the first time, in the vast majority of cases it is material that has already been considered as part of the numerous investigations and reviews that have previously been carried out.

“We are aware that parties in this recent case indicated an intention to pass material to us but we are yet to receive any such correspondence. In the event that we do, we will consider it carefully and proportionally, recognising the need to explore genuine lines of inquiry but acknowledging the significant resources already committed to past investigations.”

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sat down for a face-to-face talk in the opulent halls of a Vatican basilica to discuss a possible ceasefire, after which the US president accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of not wanting to “stop the war”.

The White House described Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader before Pope Francis’s funeral as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

It was the first time that Zelenskyy and Trump had met face to face after a frosty February encounter in the White House where Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of ingratitude for US aid.

Trump later published a social media post criticising Putin. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” he posted on Truth Social.

“It 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?’ Too many people are dying!!!” the US president wrote.

In an effort to to end fighting between Ukraine and Russia, Washington is engaging in intense mediation between the two countries, at war since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

On Friday, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin, in Moscow for three hours to discuss Washington’s peace proposal. Trump said that “most of the major points are agreed to”, in a post on his Truth Social platform, without further elaboration. He called for a meeting between Kyiv and Moscow’s leadership to sign a ceasefire deal, which he said was “very close”.

Despite Trump’s eagerness for a deal, significant differences remain between the US vision for peace and what Ukraine and its European allies have deemed acceptable conditions for a ceasefire.

Two sets of peace plans published by Reuters on Friday showed that the US is proposing Moscow retain the territory it has captured, including the strategic Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

This is seemingly a non-starter for Ukraine and European countries, with Zelenskyy insisting the territory is the “property of the Ukrainian people”.

“Our position is unchanged,” the Ukrainian president told reporters in Kyiv. “The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories … belong to Ukraine.”

It is also unclear if Moscow will agree to the US peace deal, which is seen as offering considerable concessions to Russia.

On Saturday, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said all Ukrainian troops had been forced from Russia’s Kursk region, a key aim for Moscow. Ukrainian officials disputed the claim.

The technical details of a ceasefire deal still need to be hammered out, including how western sanctions imposed on Russia would be lifted and what sort of security guarantees would be offered to Ukraine.

Trump acknowledged on Friday that the talks were “very fragile”, and he has warned that the US would halt its mediation efforts if the two sides did not come to an agreement soon.

Fighting continues in tandem with mediation efforts, and the Kremlin blames Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a senior Russian general near Moscow on Friday. Kyiv did not comment on the incident, the latest in a string of killings of Russian military officials over the past three years.

The day before, Russia carried out its deadliest attack in months on Ukraine, launching 70 missiles and 145 drones, mostly towards Kyiv.

The attack caused Trump to lash out at Putin on social media. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday.

It was a fitting moment for an epiphany, if that’s what this was. Donald Trump sat in the morning light in St Peter’s Basilica hunched over in conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the assembled royalty and foreign leaders, the cardinals and bishops, and thousands of faithful gathered outside to prepare for the papal funeral.

His revelation soon came in the guise of a Truth Social post. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump mused. “It makes me think that maybe [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war.”

For months, Zelenskyy and European leaders have struggled to deliver that message to Trump. Now, in part thanks to Trump’s unlikely pilgrimage to the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral, they may see new hope for their intervention before the Ukraine war is lost for good.

This could, of course, all come to naught. The US president is notoriously mercurial. His thinking may change the next time he speaks with Putin, or with one of his own advisers deeply sceptical of Ukraine. Trump’s post mentioning Putin was mainly dedicated to attacking the New York Times’ White House correspondent, whom he derided as “liddle” and a “very biased and untalented writer”. And Trump left the Vatican before a second meeting with Zelenskyy was supposed to take place.

And yet that one face-to-face with Zelenskyy may leave its mark. The photographs released from the summit were dramatic: the two men sat alone in simple chairs in front of a mosaic of Jesus being baptised in the river Jordan. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, felt compelled to quote the book of Matthew. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,” he wrote.

It was a “very symbolic meeting”, Zelenskyy said later, and it had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”. Zelenskyy, dressed in an all-black outfit that could be termed funereal military chic, was applauded by the crowd as he walked out on to St Peter’s Square.

It was something of a miracle that the summit happened at all. Trump and Zelenskyy hadn’t been in the same room since the Oval Office meltdown when Trump said that Zelenskyy was “disrespectful” and “gambling with world war three”. Trump’s first trip abroad was meant to be a visit to Saudi Arabia in May. And it wasn’t clear that a meeting would act in Zelenskyy’s favour – advisers suggested he should use European leaders as mediators because his and Trump’s relationship was too volatile.

And it could have gone far worse. As Trump arrived at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning, there were numerous reminders of the great rift that has opened between the US and its friends in Europe, largely prompted by an America First platform that has tested the transatlantic alliance.

Trump and his wife, Melania, stood among other leaders behind the world royalty as Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re read a homily that seemed to nod at the tensions between Trump and the late pontiff, particularly over the White House policies on migration and the recent executive order on deportations.

“‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” Re said during his homily. “His gestures and exhortations in favour of refugees and displaced persons are countless. His insistence on working on behalf of the poor was constant.”

At moments, the funeral seemed almost tailored to trigger the Maga faithful. The final group of mourners to pay their respects to the late pope were the “poor and marginalised people”, including homeless, prisoners, migrants and transgender people, the Vatican said.

And yet, in a rare moment of western cohesion, cooler heads prevailed and Ukraine’s leader was able to sit down with the president of the country’s most important ally. Whether the symbolism of Trump and Zelenskyy’s Vatican summit will translate into policy remains to be seen.

An immense blast in Iran’s southern port of Shahid Rajaee has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 700, according to state media, with an official suggesting the fire was caused by the explosion of chemical containers.

A spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management body pointed to poor storage conditions of chemicals as the trigger for the port explosion. “The cause of the explosions was the chemicals inside the containers,” Hossein Zafari, a crisis management spokesperson, told Iran’s ILNA news agency. He added that the port administration had previously been warned about the danger these chemicals posed.

The Iranian government has not yet specified the exact cause of the explosion, though it suspected combustible chemicals to be behind the blast.

The provincial attorney general had ordered a “thorough and urgent” investigation into the circumstances of the explosion, which local officials said began in several containers in the port.

Shahid Rajaee is a large Iranian container facility that handles 80m tons of goods a year, including fuel and other combustible materials. It is part of the Bandar Abbas port, the country’s largest.

State media had previously quoted Iranian security officials as saying “any speculation about the cause of the explosion is worthless”.

Videos showed a huge billowing mushroom cloud and the force of the blast destroyed a nearby building and shattered windows.

Injured people lay on the roadside as authorities declared a state of emergency at hospitals across Bandar Abbas to cope with the influx of wounded.

Aerial and naval firefighting teams worked to extinguish the blast, and state media reported officials expected the firefighting operation to be completed within an hour. Local media reported people trapped under the wreckage of a collapsed building.

In the aftermath of the explosion, port activities were suspended and Iranian customs officials halted export and transit shipments to the port.

The state-owned National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said that oil refineries, tankers and pipelines in the area continued to operate and were unaffected by the blast.

The explosion occurred as Iran and the US met for the third round of nuclear talks in Oman on Saturday, aiming to achieve a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi spoke through Omani mediators for six hours on Saturday to create a framework for a new nuclear deal.

Trump, in an interview with Time magazine on Friday, said that he thought a deal with Iran was possible. Oman’s foreign minister announced that another “high-level meeting” was scheduled for 3 May.

The US and Israel view the prospect of Iran getting a nuclear weapon as an urgent threat. Iranian officials, in turn, are keen to lift a severe US sanctions regime on the beleaguered economy.

“Iran remains steadfast in its principled stance on the need to end unjust sanctions and is ready to build confidence about the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in Oman.

In 2020, the Shahid Rajaee container facility was hit with a complex cyber-attack that jammed port logistics, which the Washington Post reported as being perpetrated by Israel in retaliation for an Iranian cyber-attack.

The cyber-attack was one of a series of incidents that has affected Iranian critical infrastructure in recent years.

The government has blamed some of the incidents, such as a 2024 coalmine blast in southern Iran which killed 31 people, on negligence. Tehran has accused Israel of being behind other incidents, such as an attack on Iranian gas pipelines last year.

The Israeli government made no comment on Saturday’s explosions in Iran.

Reuters contributed to this report

Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who also alleged she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew, has died aged 41.

Her family issued a statement on Saturday confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” the statement read.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Giuffre was one of the most vocal victims of Epstein, alleging she had been groomed and sexually abused by him and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, beginning in her teens.

The family described her as a “fierce warrior” against sexual abuse and sex trafficking and a “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,” they said.

Giuffre is survived by her three children, Christian, Noah and Emily, who her family said were the “light of her life”.

“It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realised she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others,” they said.

“There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.”

Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, said she was “much more than a client”.

“She was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims. Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” McCawley said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.”

Giuffre’s representative Dini von Mueffling said she was “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,” she said. “She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Josh Schiffer, a lawyer who represents one of Epstein’s victims, said Giuffre was integral to exposing the financier. “The case wouldn’t have existed without the input, her cooperation, her bravery at the beginning, inspiring so many other people to come forward,” he told the US cable network NewsNation.

Schiffer said: “Her loss will hopefully be a marker and almost an inspiration for people to calling attention to the epidemic that is sex trafficking, that is the international sex industry. This is an issue that still persists. It changes its form all the time and it exists all around the world. This just happened to be a really prominent example.”

Western Australia police did not publicly confirm Giuffre had died, but said emergency services responded to reports a 41-year-old woman was unresponsive at a home in Neergabby, about 75km north of Perth, about 9.50pm on Friday.

The woman was given emergency first aid but was pronounced dead, they said.

The death will be investigated but is not considered suspicious.

Earlier this month, Giuffre posted on social media that she had just days to live after a school bus crashed into her car.

WA police later confirmed a 41-year-old woman was in a car that collided with a bus on 24 March but there were no reported injuries. It is understood Giuffre presented to a Perth hospital emergency department on 1 April.

Giuffre, who is American, said she met Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 when working as a locker-room assistant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Maxwell offered her a job as massage therapist to Epstein, during which she alleged she was trafficked to the financier’s friends and clients – “passed around like a platter of fruit”.

In a 2009 civil lawsuit against Epstein, under the pseudonym “Jane Doe 102”, she alleged that her duties included being “sexually exploited by Epstein’s adult male peers including royalty”. Giuffre reached a settlement with Epstein in that case before it went to trial.

In 2021, Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in the federal court in New York, alleging he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly and strongly denied the accusations.

In the lawsuit, Giuffre alleged Epstein and Maxwell had introduced her to Andrew in 2001, and alleged that Maxwell forced her to have sex with Andrew.

In 2022, Andrew and Giuffre agreed to an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

Maxwell, who has maintained her innocence, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for sex trafficking.

Epstein was arrested by federal authorities in July 2019 and charged with sex-trafficking counts. Shortly after, he died by suicide while awaiting trial.

In the US on Saturday, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (Rainn) praised Guiffre’s courage while warning that victims of abuse are “significantly more likely to attempt suicide or suffer other long term effects of trauma”.

“Our heart goes out to Virginia Giuffre’s family and loved ones and to all those victimized by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates,” said Scott Berkowitz, the president and founder of Rainn, adding that the group “will honor Giuffre’s memory by continuing our work to prevent sexual violence and to improve the criminal justice process for survivors” and urging other victims that they are “never alone” and to reach out for help to relevant groups.

Maya Yang contributed reporting

Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who also alleged she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew, has died aged 41.

Her family issued a statement on Saturday confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” the statement read.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Giuffre was one of the most vocal victims of Epstein, alleging she had been groomed and sexually abused by him and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, beginning in her teens.

The family described her as a “fierce warrior” against sexual abuse and sex trafficking and a “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,” they said.

Giuffre is survived by her three children, Christian, Noah and Emily, who her family said were the “light of her life”.

“It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realised she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others,” they said.

“There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.”

Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, said she was “much more than a client”.

“She was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims. Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” McCawley said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.”

Giuffre’s representative Dini von Mueffling said she was “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,” she said. “She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Josh Schiffer, a lawyer who represents one of Epstein’s victims, said Giuffre was integral to exposing the financier. “The case wouldn’t have existed without the input, her cooperation, her bravery at the beginning, inspiring so many other people to come forward,” he told the US cable network NewsNation.

Schiffer said: “Her loss will hopefully be a marker and almost an inspiration for people to calling attention to the epidemic that is sex trafficking, that is the international sex industry. This is an issue that still persists. It changes its form all the time and it exists all around the world. This just happened to be a really prominent example.”

Western Australia police did not publicly confirm Giuffre had died, but said emergency services responded to reports a 41-year-old woman was unresponsive at a home in Neergabby, about 75km north of Perth, about 9.50pm on Friday.

The woman was given emergency first aid but was pronounced dead, they said.

The death will be investigated but is not considered suspicious.

Earlier this month, Giuffre posted on social media that she had just days to live after a school bus crashed into her car.

WA police later confirmed a 41-year-old woman was in a car that collided with a bus on 24 March but there were no reported injuries. It is understood Giuffre presented to a Perth hospital emergency department on 1 April.

Giuffre, who is American, said she met Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 when working as a locker-room assistant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Maxwell offered her a job as massage therapist to Epstein, during which she alleged she was trafficked to the financier’s friends and clients – “passed around like a platter of fruit”.

In a 2009 civil lawsuit against Epstein, under the pseudonym “Jane Doe 102”, she alleged that her duties included being “sexually exploited by Epstein’s adult male peers including royalty”. Giuffre reached a settlement with Epstein in that case before it went to trial.

In 2021, Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in the federal court in New York, alleging he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly and strongly denied the accusations.

In the lawsuit, Giuffre alleged Epstein and Maxwell had introduced her to Andrew in 2001, and alleged that Maxwell forced her to have sex with Andrew.

In 2022, Andrew and Giuffre agreed to an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

Maxwell, who has maintained her innocence, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for sex trafficking.

Epstein was arrested by federal authorities in July 2019 and charged with sex-trafficking counts. Shortly after, he died by suicide while awaiting trial.

In the US on Saturday, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (Rainn) praised Guiffre’s courage while warning that victims of abuse are “significantly more likely to attempt suicide or suffer other long term effects of trauma”.

“Our heart goes out to Virginia Giuffre’s family and loved ones and to all those victimized by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates,” said Scott Berkowitz, the president and founder of Rainn, adding that the group “will honor Giuffre’s memory by continuing our work to prevent sexual violence and to improve the criminal justice process for survivors” and urging other victims that they are “never alone” and to reach out for help to relevant groups.

Maya Yang contributed reporting

Americans, including some Republicans, are losing faith in Donald Trump across a range of key issues, according to polling released this week. One survey found a majority describing the president’s second stint in the White House so far as “scary”.

Along with poor ratings on the economy and Trump’s immigration policy, a survey released on Saturday found that only 24% of Americans believe Trump has focussed on the right priorities as president.

That poll comes as Trump’s popularity is historically low for a leader this early in a term. More than half of voters disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, and majorities oppose his tariff policies and slashing of the federal workforce.

The scathing reviews come as Trump next week marks 100 days of his second stint office, and suggest Americans are already experiencing fatigue after a period that has seen global financial market nosedives and chilling deportations, including of documented people.

A poll by the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research published this weekend, found that even Republicans are not overwhelmingly convinced that Trump’s attention has been in the right place.

A narrow majority, 54%, of Republicans surveyed said that Trump is focussed on the “right priorities”, while the president’s numbers with crucial independent voters are much weaker. Just 9% of independents said that the president is focussed on the right priorities – with 42% believing Trump is paying attention to the wrong issues.

About four in 10 people in the survey approve of how Trump is handling the presidency overall, and only about 40% of Americans approve of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, trade negotiations and the economy.

Meanwhile, a New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters on Friday found that Trump’s approval rating is 42%, and just 29% among independent voters. More than half of voters said Trump is “exceeding the powers available to him”, and 59% of respondents said the president’s second term has been “scary”.

While Republican leaders typically receive strong scores on economic issues, Americans have been underwhelmed by Trump’s performance. The Times survey found that only 43% of voters approve of how Trump is handling the economy – a stark turnaround from a Times poll in April 2024, which found that 64% approved of Trump’s economy in his first term.

Half of voters disapproved of Trump’s trade policies with other countries, and 61% said a president should not have the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval, while the Times reported that 63% – including 40% of Republicans – said “a president should not be able to deport legal immigrants who have protested Israel”.

Further on immigration, a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll on Friday found that 53% of Americans now disapprove of the president’s handling of immigration matters, while 46% approve. In February the majority was the other way, with half of those surveyed approving of Trump’s approach on that issue.

The Post reported that as support has drained away on this topic, at this point 90% of Democrats, 56% of independents and 11% of Republicans dislike the way Trump is dealing with immigration.

The poor reviews have dogged Trump all week. An Associated Press poll on Thursday found that about half of US adults say that Trump’s trade policies will increase prices “a lot” and another three in 10 think prices could go up “somewhat”, and half of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the possibility of the US economy going into a recession in the next few months.

Polling conducted by the Trump-friendly Fox News has brought little respite. A survey published on Wednesday found that just 38% of Americans approve of Trump on the economy, with 56% disapproving.

The Fox News poll found that 58% of respondents disapproved of Trump’s performance, and 59% disapproved on inflation. Just three in 10 Americans said they believed Trump’s policies were helping the economy, and only four in 10 said Trump’s policies will help the country.

Among generation Z, generally regarded as those born between 1995 and 2012, a staggering 69% told pollsters for an NBC Stay Tuned survey that they don’t approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and the cost of living. Gen Z participants complained of struggling to even pay the rent in some places, let alone buy a home, and they worry about inflation.

A minority of gen Z people polled thought the country would be stronger if more people lived by traditional binary gender roles and more than 90% of those polled said they believed foreign students with visas or green cards should have the same due process protections as US citizens. This comes amid the Trump administration declaring there are only two genders, male and female, and arresting and detaining some pro-Palestinian student activists without due process.

Liam and Noel Gallagher have performed together for the first time in 16 years in a working men’s club in north London, according to reports.

The brothers were pictured arriving at the Mildmay club in Newington Green, north London, on Thursday where they are believed to have filmed a promotional video for this summer’s sold-out Oasis reunion tour.

According to the Sun, they arrived at the venue separately, stayed for just over an hour, and made enough noise to provoke the ire of local people.

Set to begin in Cardiff on 4 July, the much-anticipated Oasis ‘25 tour will come 16 years after the band bitterly split after an infamous backstage fight at Rock en Seine festival in Paris, and 30 years after the release of their bestselling second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?.

In a joint statement after the tour’s announcement, the band said: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”

The brothers are thought to be back in each other’s good graces, with Noel confirming to TalkSport earlier this week that rehearsals for the tour will begin in the next few weeks. When asked about Liam, he said: “He’s alright. He’s on tip-top form. I was with him yesterday, actually.”

The UK leg of the tour will include seven shows at Wembley Stadium in London, as well as five in the Gallaghers’ home town of Manchester. They will then tour the US, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Australia, before ending in South America in November.

The tour made headlines earlier this week when data from Lloyds Banking Group revealed that fans have collectively lost more than £2m to scams since tickets went on sale in August 2024.

The Competition and Markets Authority previously found that Ticketmaster may have “breached” consumer protection law in the way it sold more than 900,000 tickets, with some fans ending up paying more than £350 for tickets worth £150.

The band shrugged off any criticism of ticket pricing, saying in a statement last year: “Inevitably interest in this tour is so overwhelming that it’s impossible to schedule enough shows to fulfil public demand.

“As for the well-reported complaints many buyers had over the operation of Ticketmaster’s dynamic ticketing: it needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used.”

In response to one fan, who wrote on X that they “didn’t expect [Oasis] to rip off the fans as much as they have”, Liam curtly replied: “SHUTUP”.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s orbit has become consumed by a contentious leak investigation that those inside the Pentagon believe is behind the firing of three senior aides last week, according to five people involved in the situation.

The secretary’s office has been marked for weeks by ugly internal politics between chief of staff Joe Kasper, who left the department on Thursday, and the three ousted aides, including senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief Darin Selnick, and the chief to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll.

The fraught nature of the investigation into the mishandling of classified information also threatens to reopen scrutiny of Hegseth’s ability to manage the Pentagon at a time when he himself shared plans for US strikes against the Houthis in Yemen in a second Signal group chat that included his wife.

The fallout from the leak investigation has been far-reaching, the people said. Hegseth has dramatically narrowed his inner circle, which now consists of three people: his acting chief of staff, Ricky Buria, until recently his junior military assistant; his lawyer Tim Parlatore; and spokesperson Sean Parnell.

At the center of the leak investigation is an inquiry into the disclosure of an allegedly top-secret document to a reporter. The document outlined flexible options for the US military to reclaim the Panama canal including by sending US troops to the area.

The leak was attributed to Caldwell, according to two people familiar with what was briefed to Hegseth and the White House, and it was suggested he did so because he disagreed with the options for military involvement in Donald Trump’s efforts to reclaim the Panama canal.

But Caldwell has strenuously denied leaking to a reporter and told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview that he believed the leak investigation had been “weaponized”, not least because he had been teased internally for expressing support for military options for the Panama canal.

The two other aides, Selnick and Carroll, were also fired last week although they were not characterized to the White House as the principal targets of the leak investigation, the people said.

Carroll was interviewed by the air force office of special investigations, which has jurisdiction over civilian employees at the defense department, but only on the Monday after all three aides had been fired and only because he had repeatedly sought an interview to clear his name.

The two aides have privately suggested that they were pushed out over the perception they were undercutting Kasper, whom they considered to be ineffective at his job, and were vocal about their complaints.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the reporting about the investigation.

The forcefulness of the denial by Caldwell, coupled with his close relationship with Hegseth, who had brought him on after they worked together at Concerned Veterans for America, has caught numerous senior officials at the White House and the Pentagon off-guard.

And the fraught background to the leak investigation of vicious interpersonal conflicts among Hegseth’s senior aides has left them unable to decipher who and what to believe.

When Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon, it was with the least experience of any of his predecessors. He got the job after impressing Trump in an interview they did during the campaign, and Trump later suggested he lead the Pentagon or the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hegseth is seen to have been fairly successful through the first six weeks of his tenure, according to four Pentagon officials who interacted with him on a daily basis. He was affable with world leaders and won over skeptical House Freedom caucus members when he briefed them on the Pentagon budget.

But the pressures of running an $800bn-plus agency that oversees more than 2 million troops started to catch up, the officials said, and a series of leaks intensified his distrust of career employees, whom defense officials once hoped could guide him to efficiently run the Pentagon.

The pressures appear to have filtered down to his team, which became increasingly split between a faction that supported Kasper and dismissed his detractors as ambitious colleagues, and a faction behind the three aides who considered Kasper an ineffective manager.

Kasper complained to associates that Caldwell, Selnick and Carroll were trying to force his ouster and about what he saw as attempts to manufacture controversy. In one instance, Carroll sent him an email about possible leaks from the inspector general’s office, which he found to be baseless.

Kasper also told associates that he had allegedly heard Selnick say something to the effect of “the way to get people fired in this place is to get bad headlines on them”, two officials said.

But senior aides at the White House and the Pentagon increasingly started routing requests through Caldwell and Selnick, the officials said, in large part because they were seen to be quicker at getting things done – in a dynamic that appeared to grate on Kasper.

The internal rivalries escalated in the wake of the Panama canal material leak. Hegseth ordered an investigation into some nine leaks, and Kasper suggested that he wanted to bring in the FBI and to conduct polygraph tests on aides, the officials said.

Caldwell advocated for the leak investigations to be narrowed in scope in part because he was against having the FBI rummage through their affairs, according to multiple people he spoke to about the matter – which appears to have been part of the reason he came under suspicion.

The tensions among the former aides have continued since their collective ouster. Carroll has considered filing a defamation suit against Kasper and started making calls on the Monday after he was fired, asking people whether Kasper had ever been seen doing cocaine in a previous job.

Kasper has complained that some of the calls went to his wife and previous clients, asking rhetorically to associates how he would have been able to hold a security clearance and pass regular drug tests. “It’s so egregiously stupid,” Kasper said when reached for comment.