The funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican has said.

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

The mass will begin at 10am local time and will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college of cardinals.

The Vatican also said the pope’s coffin would be taken to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday at 9am, where it will remain until the night before the funeral, to allow the public to pay their respects.

Francis will be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

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

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

Heads of state and government who have so far confirmed their attendance at the funeral include Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina.

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

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

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend the funeral, AFP reported, citing a source in Kyiv, while Vladimir Putin, said the Kremlin, will not.

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

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

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

Some of the potential contenders mooted before Francis’s death were Matteo Zuppi, a progressive Italian cardinal, Pietro Parolin, who serves as the Vatican’s secretary of state, and Luis Antonio Tagle, from the Philippines.

During his 12-year papacy, Francis – the first Jesuit pope – was a vocal champion of poor, dispossessed and disadvantaged people, and a blunt critic of corporate greed and social and economic inequality. Within the Vatican he criticised extravagance and privilege, calling on church leaders to show humility.

His views riled significant numbers of cardinals and powerful Vatican officials, who often sought to frustrate Francis’s efforts to overhaul the ancient institutions of the church. But his compassion and humanity endeared him to millions.

His death certificate, released by the Vatican, said Francis died from a stroke causing a coma and “irreversible” heart failure. He had been discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on 23 March and been ordered to spend at least two months resting.

The funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican has said.

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

The mass will begin at 10am local time and will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college of cardinals.

The Vatican also said the pope’s coffin would be taken to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday at 9am, where it will remain until the night before the funeral, to allow the public to pay their respects.

Francis will be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

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

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

Heads of state and government who have so far confirmed their attendance at the funeral include Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina.

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

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

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend the funeral, AFP reported, citing a source in Kyiv, while Vladimir Putin, said the Kremlin, will not.

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

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

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

Some of the potential contenders mooted before Francis’s death were Matteo Zuppi, a progressive Italian cardinal, Pietro Parolin, who serves as the Vatican’s secretary of state, and Luis Antonio Tagle, from the Philippines.

During his 12-year papacy, Francis – the first Jesuit pope – was a vocal champion of poor, dispossessed and disadvantaged people, and a blunt critic of corporate greed and social and economic inequality. Within the Vatican he criticised extravagance and privilege, calling on church leaders to show humility.

His views riled significant numbers of cardinals and powerful Vatican officials, who often sought to frustrate Francis’s efforts to overhaul the ancient institutions of the church. But his compassion and humanity endeared him to millions.

His death certificate, released by the Vatican, said Francis died from a stroke causing a coma and “irreversible” heart failure. He had been discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on 23 March and been ordered to spend at least two months resting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But she added: “The report also clearly shows that the world has changed, which is why I will be in Washington this week defending British interests and making the case for free and fair trade.”

Reeves will meet her US counterpart, Scott Bessent, for the first time on the sidelines of the meeting and is expected to press the UK’s case for reduced tariffs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With stock markets on Wall Street resuming their slide on Monday, the IMF expressed concern in the report about the shock waves unleashed in financial markets by Trump’s trade policies – and said worse may be to come.

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

The dollar has hit a three-year low, as Trump issued further criticism of Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, calling him “Mr Too Late” for failing to cut interest rates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More companies are borrowing from private credit funds, it said, and big investors such as pension funds are increasingly backing foreign direct-lending funds. As the market becomes more complex and global, “the risk that credit shocks will propagate from one jurisdiction to others intensifies”, the report said.

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

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

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

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

The embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has defended his most recent use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, blaming fired Pentagon officials for orchestrating leaks against the Trump administration.

In an interview with former colleagues at Fox News on Tuesday morning, the defense secretary suggested the problems stem from former officials, appointed by this administration, for leaking information to damage him and Donald Trump, adding that there was an internal investigation and that evidence would eventually be handed to the justice department.

“When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information … Why would it surprise anybody if those very same people keep leaking to the very same reporters whatever information they think they can have to try to sabotage the agenda of the president or the secretary?” Hegseth said.

In a statement posted on X over the weekend, the three dismissed top officials – Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick – wrote that they were “incredibly disappointed” by the way they were removed, adding that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”

Hegseth, in the interview, also confirmed the news that his chief of staff Joe Kasper will stay at the Pentagon, but it’s “going to be in a slightly different role”.

The controversy stems from recent reporting in the New York Times, after a second Signal chat was identified where he is again believed to have shared sensitive operational details about strikes against Houthis in Yemen – including launch times of fighter jets, bomb drop timings and missile launches – with a group of 13 people, including his wife, brother and personal lawyer, some of whom possessed no security clearance.

Hegseth dismissed those reports in the interview, characterizing criticism as politically motivated attacks.

“No one’s texting war plans,” Hegseth told Fox and Friends. “What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations for media coordination among other things.”

An earlier revelation in March detailed how Hegseth had shared similar military information in another Signal chat that included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, who later published the messages after Hegseth and the White House insisted they were not classified.

The first chat leak appeared to be a violation of the defense department’s own classification guidelines, and it triggered an investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general into his use of the encrypted messaging app.

The backlash against Hegseth’s misuse of Signal while running the government’s largest and most funded office – that could get a budget of $1tn – has only gotten more intense over the last few days.

Representative Don Bacon, a Republican and former Air Force general who chairs the House armed services cyber subcommittee, became the first member of the GOP to openly support Hegseth’s removal.

“I had concerns from the get-go because Pete Hegseth didn’t have a lot of experience,” Bacon told Politico. “If it’s true that he had another [Signal] chat with his family, about the missions against the Houthis, it’s totally unacceptable,” he added later.

Former chief Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot wrote in a Politico Magazine opinion piece over the weekend that “the building is in disarray” and that “it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”

Retired US navy admiral James Stavridis similarly condemned Hegseth’s actions, telling CNN: “There is absolutely no reason on the planet Earth he should be doing that and he knows it.”

Despite the professional controversies – and the fact that the current administration appointed the officials he is now attacking – Hegseth portrayed himself as a disruptive force against entrenched interests at the Pentagon.

“They’ve come after me from day one, just like they’ve come after President Trump,” Hegseth said. “A lot of people come to Washington and they just play the game … That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because President Trump asked me to bring war fighting back to the Pentagon every single day. If people don’t like it, they can come after me.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both sides have reported a decrease in fighting during the Easter truce, though each has accused the other of violating the temporary ceasefire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oxford academics drank from a chalice made from a human skull for decades, a book that explores the violent colonial history of looted human remains has revealed.

The skull-cup, fashioned from a sawn-off and polished braincase adorned with a silver rim and stand, was used regularly at formal dinners at Worcester College, Oxford, until 2015, according to Prof Dan Hicks, the curator of world archaeology at the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum.

Hicks, whose forthcoming book, Every Monument Will Fall, traces the “shameful history of the skull”, said the cup was also used to serve chocolates after it began to leak wine.

The archaeologist said mounting disquiet among fellows and guests put an end to the senior common room ritual and, in 2019, the college invited Hicks to investigate the skull’s origins, and how it became what he calls “some sick variety of tableware”.

Hicks said debates about the legacy of colonialism usually focused on how the prominent Britons who profited from it, such as Cecil Rhodes or Edward Colston, had been memorialised by statues, objects or institutions bearing their names.

But he wanted to show how the identities of the victims of colonial rule had often been erased from history because, due to racist ideas of British cultural and white supremacy, they were not considered noteworthy. “The dehumanisation and destruction of identities was part of the violence,” the archaeologist added.

Hicks found no record of the person whose remains the skull-cup was made from, although carbon dating showed the skull is about 225 years old. Its size and circumstantial evidence suggest it came from the Caribbean and possibly belonged to an enslaved woman, he added.

In contrast, the chalice’s British owners were well-documented. The cup was donated to Worcester College in 1946 by a former student, George Pitt-Rivers, whose name is inscribed on its silver rim. A eugenicist, he was interned by the British government during the second world war due to his support for the fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

The cup was part of the lesser-known private second collection of his grandfather, the Victorian British soldier and archaeologist Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, who founded the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1884.

The elder Pitt Rivers bought the skull-cup at a Sotheby’s auction that same year. The listing shows it then had a wooden stand with a Queen Victoria shilling inlaid underneath. Silver hallmarks indicate it was made in 1838, the year of her coronation.

The seller was Bernhard Smith, a lawyer and graduate of Oriel College, Oxford, who mainly collected weaponry and armour. Hicks speculated that he received it as a gift from his father, who served with the Royal Navy in the Caribbean.

The Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, said: “It is sickening to think of Oxford dons, sitting in this bastion of privilege, itself enriched by the proceeds of centuries of colonial violence and extraction, swilling drink out of a human skull that may have belonged to an enslaved person and has been so little valued that it has been turned into an object.”

A Worcester College spokesperson said: “In the 20th century, the vessel was sometimes on display with the college’s silver collection and used as tableware. The college does not hold records of how often this was the case, but it was severely limited after 2011 and the vessel was completely removed 10 years ago.

After taking scientific and legal advice, the college’s governing body decided the skull-cup should be stored in its archive “in a respectful manner, where access to it is permanently denied”, the spokesperson added. “As Dr Hicks acknowledges in his book, the college has dealt with the issue ethically and thoughtfully.”

The book also details other skulls looted from colonial battlefields by prominent Victorians, which were displayed in their homes or donated to museums. These include Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, after whom the tower in Kensington is named, who dug up the skull of a Zulu commander two years after he was killed by the British army in the battle of Ulundi in 1879.

Oxford academics drank from a chalice made from a human skull for decades, a book that explores the violent colonial history of looted human remains has revealed.

The skull-cup, fashioned from a sawn-off and polished braincase adorned with a silver rim and stand, was used regularly at formal dinners at Worcester College, Oxford, until 2015, according to Prof Dan Hicks, the curator of world archaeology at the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum.

Hicks, whose forthcoming book, Every Monument Will Fall, traces the “shameful history of the skull”, said the cup was also used to serve chocolates after it began to leak wine.

The archaeologist said mounting disquiet among fellows and guests put an end to the senior common room ritual and, in 2019, the college invited Hicks to investigate the skull’s origins, and how it became what he calls “some sick variety of tableware”.

Hicks said debates about the legacy of colonialism usually focused on how the prominent Britons who profited from it, such as Cecil Rhodes or Edward Colston, had been memorialised by statues, objects or institutions bearing their names.

But he wanted to show how the identities of the victims of colonial rule had often been erased from history because, due to racist ideas of British cultural and white supremacy, they were not considered noteworthy. “The dehumanisation and destruction of identities was part of the violence,” the archaeologist added.

Hicks found no record of the person whose remains the skull-cup was made from, although carbon dating showed the skull is about 225 years old. Its size and circumstantial evidence suggest it came from the Caribbean and possibly belonged to an enslaved woman, he added.

In contrast, the chalice’s British owners were well-documented. The cup was donated to Worcester College in 1946 by a former student, George Pitt-Rivers, whose name is inscribed on its silver rim. A eugenicist, he was interned by the British government during the second world war due to his support for the fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

The cup was part of the lesser-known private second collection of his grandfather, the Victorian British soldier and archaeologist Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, who founded the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1884.

The elder Pitt Rivers bought the skull-cup at a Sotheby’s auction that same year. The listing shows it then had a wooden stand with a Queen Victoria shilling inlaid underneath. Silver hallmarks indicate it was made in 1838, the year of her coronation.

The seller was Bernhard Smith, a lawyer and graduate of Oriel College, Oxford, who mainly collected weaponry and armour. Hicks speculated that he received it as a gift from his father, who served with the Royal Navy in the Caribbean.

The Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, said: “It is sickening to think of Oxford dons, sitting in this bastion of privilege, itself enriched by the proceeds of centuries of colonial violence and extraction, swilling drink out of a human skull that may have belonged to an enslaved person and has been so little valued that it has been turned into an object.”

A Worcester College spokesperson said: “In the 20th century, the vessel was sometimes on display with the college’s silver collection and used as tableware. The college does not hold records of how often this was the case, but it was severely limited after 2011 and the vessel was completely removed 10 years ago.

After taking scientific and legal advice, the college’s governing body decided the skull-cup should be stored in its archive “in a respectful manner, where access to it is permanently denied”, the spokesperson added. “As Dr Hicks acknowledges in his book, the college has dealt with the issue ethically and thoughtfully.”

The book also details other skulls looted from colonial battlefields by prominent Victorians, which were displayed in their homes or donated to museums. These include Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, after whom the tower in Kensington is named, who dug up the skull of a Zulu commander two years after he was killed by the British army in the battle of Ulundi in 1879.

Spain has announced a €10.5bn investment plan to ensure it will reach its long-delayed Nato commitment of spending 2% of its GDP on defence this year, saying it has become obvious “only Europe will know how to protect Europe” from now on.

The country – which lags well behind other western nations by dedicating about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending – is one of the Nato members that has been pressured by the Trump administration to increase its spending, and had previously committed to hitting the 2% threshold by 2029.

But speaking on Tuesday morning, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, unveiled a €10.5bn (£9bn) “industrial and technological plan for security and defence” that will allow Spain to meet the 2% commitment in 2025.

Sánchez said the plan, which has been approved by his cabinet and will now be submitted to the EU and Nato, was needed to address the current and future defence challenges. Its main focus will be telecommunications, cybersecurity and buying military equipment.

“The enemies of Europe are not just using missiles – as we have seen in Ukraine over the past three years,” he said. “They’re also using unmanned drones and paramilitary forces to sabotage supply chains and to cut gas lines and underwater cables. They’re using social networks to issue disinformation and to polarise people and spread disaffection towards democratic institutions. They’re using AI cyber-attacks and quantum computers to compromise out telecommunications, our supply networks, and our public services in order to target our way of life.”

The prime minister – who pointed out that his administration was finally making good on the 2% commitment pledged by its conservative predecessor in 2014 – said the new plan would help reinforce European security in record time.

“In a world that’s dominated by uncertainty, Europe is hope and it is certainty – and that certainty must be protected by strengthening our security and defence systems because given what’s going on, it’s obvious that only Europe will know how to protect Europe,” he added. “And Spain will contribute to protecting Europe.”

Sánchez said Vladimir Putin’s “neo-imperialism” was a threat to European security, no matter how far any EU member state was from the frontlines of the conflict in Ukraine.

“The security and stability of Ukraine, of eastern Europe and the Baltic and Nordic countries, is also the security and the safety of Spain,” he said. “The people who live in those countries know that Putin is serious – and that his words are backed by deeds – and that’s why they look to Europe for protection. They’re looking for something important, and that is unity. Spain will not be indifferent to that demand. Ukraine resists, Europe responds and Spain fulfils its obligations.”

Sánchez also repeated his assurances that the additional spending would not lead to increased taxes, raids on the welfare state budget, or deficit increases. The plan has faced criticism from coalition partners in the leftwing Sumar platform, who described the plans as “incoherent” and “absolutely exorbitant”.

In January, Donald Trump increased pressure on Nato, claiming the US had shouldered the global defence burden for too long and saying he would ask all Nato members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP.

The Nato secretary-general, Mark Rutte, has urged member states to use the threats from Washington as an incentive to take unilateral action on raising defence contributions. Last month, Rutte said the pressure was already paying off in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy.

“I tell them that, well, now I am calling you to ask you to deliver the 2% by the summer, so that collectively we can move considerably north of the 2% because we have to spend much, much more than 2% but now I am calling you, but you might get a very, erm, patient man from Washington on the line if you don’t listen to me,” he said.

Japan has imported rice from South Korea for the first time in a quarter of a century in an attempt to address soaring prices and growing consumer anger.

South Korean rice arrived in Japan last month for the first time since 1999, according to media reports, as the price of domestically produced grain continued to rise, despite government attempts to relieve the pressure on shoppers.

The price of Japan-grown rice has more than doubled since this time last year, fuelling demand for cheaper foreign grain, despite the heavy tariffs imposed on imports.

The quantity of South Korean rice, which was sold online and at supermarkets, is still relatively low at just two tonnes, but there are plans to ship a further 20 tonnes in the coming days, the public broadcaster NHK said.

While Japanese consumers have traditionally been sceptical about the quality and taste of foreign rice – Thai rice imported after an unusually cool summer in 1993 largely went unsold – the current crisis has forced Japanese consumers to develop a taste for foreign rice.

South Korea’s rice exports to Japan are expected to reach their highest since 1990, according to the Yonhap news agency, while the crisis has also opened up potential export opportunities for producers in the US.

Arata Hirano, who runs a restaurant in Tokyo, switched from Japanese to American rice last year when a shortage of the domestic grain triggered a steep rise in prices.

Hirano told Reuters that the price of the Californian product he now served had doubled since his first purchase last summer, but was still cheaper than homegrown rice.

And he has had no complaints from diners, including Miki Nihei, who was surprised to find out the rice she had eaten wasn’t grown in Japan. “I had no idea,” she said. “I have no qualms about eating imported rice. Prices have gone up, so I’m always looking for cheaper options.”

In the week to 6 April, Japanese supermarket rice prices reached an average of ¥4,214 ($30/£22) for 5kg – more than double the same period a year earlier.

The trend has forced the Japanese government to take the unusual step of dipping into its vast rice reserves. In March it began releasing 210,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice in an attempt to arrest price rises caused by a combination of record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.

Japan had previously dipped into its rice reserves in the aftermath of natural disasters or crop failures, but this was the first time it had intervened over distribution issues.

The measure has had little impact, however.

Last week the agriculture ministry said “logistical problems” meant only a tiny quantity of the released rice had reached shops.

About 142,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice were released in the first auction held in mid-March, but as of the end of the month just 426 tonnes, or 0.3% of the total, had reached supermarkets and other outlets, the ministry said, blaming the bottleneck on a shortage of delivery vehicles and the time needed to prepare the grain for sale.

Japan’s rice stockpiles had already depleted after record-breaking temperatures affected the 2023 crop. Stockpiles shrank again last year, partly due to a rise in consumption caused by record numbers of tourists. Supplies were also hit by panic buying in the wake of typhoon and earthquake warnings, forcing some retailers to restrict sales.

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

The reorganisation will close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimise offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them to regional bureaus.

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

“This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies,” he said. “Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist.”

More details soon …

An ancient English oak believed to be Berlin’s oldest tree is suffering the effects of a prolonged dry spell in the German capital, local authorities have said, compounding already significant damage to its once lush canopy and branches.

“Dicke Marie” (Fat Marie), as Berliners affectionately call the tree located in the northern Tegel Forest, has been deprived of essential moisture in recent years as a result of extended periods of sparse rainfall blamed on the climate crisis, according to natural resource officials.

“But we hope that she’ll still be with us for another couple decades or even centuries,” Marc Franusch, the head of the Tegel Forestry Office, told the newswire DPA.

Franusch said the remainder of spring could bring relief in the form of more precipitation but that pruning the gnarled Marie, whose age is estimated at 500-600 years, was not an option.

“We want to be very gentle and prudent in stabilising the tree and its situation to do our best to support its vitality,” he said. The ancient oak stands about 18.5 metres tall, with a trunk about 2 metres in diameter.

Dicke Marie has long been a popular attraction for nature lovers, particularly in the years of Berlin’s cold war division by the Wall, when protected forests offered West Berliners a cherished refuge while the surrounding countryside lay beyond the border in communist East Germany.

But the tree’s remote location at the northern end of Lake Tegel and its diminished, increasingly knotty profile as neighbouring trees overshadowed it have meant ever fewer visitors seek it out, forestry officials say.

Dicke Marie nevertheless was granted National Heritage Tree status by the German Dendrological Society in 2021, the first awarded to a tree in a forest.

Its remarkable longevity had been attributed to its lakeside home, with its roots soaking up the available moisture even during drought periods. But increasingly arid conditions in the region now appear to be taking their toll.

This March was the driest ever recorded in Germany, according to the German Weather Service, and April has seen little improvement.

The vast rural Brandenburg state surrounding Berlin reported only 10-20% of the expected precipitation in February and March, Raimund Engel, a regional forest fire protection officer, told the broadcaster RBB.

Many traditional Easter weekend bonfires in Berlin and Brandenburg were called off this year owing to parched conditions in the region, to prevent uncontrolled blazes. The festivities trace their roots to pagan rituals to banish evil winter spirits.

The Berlin oak’s nickname Dicke Marie is believed to have come from the aristocratic brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who grew up in nearby Tegel Palace, after their beloved cook.

The Humboldts gave their own name to Berlin’s “fattest” tree, a 350-year-old oak in the same forest with a circumference of nearly 8 metres.

Germany is believed to have about 100 trees that are at least 400 years old.

George Clooney has said he is unconcerned about the persistent verbal abuse levelled at him by Donald Trump, after the president labelled him a “fake movie actor” on Truth Social.

Speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Clooney said: “I don’t care. I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that.”

He continued: “People will criticise that. Elon Musk has weighed in [about me]. That is their right. It’s my right to say the other side.”

Trump’s attacks on Clooney renewed last summer, after the latter’s op-ed piece in the New York Times urging Joe Biden to step down for re-election. The actor wrote that Biden could continue with his work furthering democracy by allowing an alternative, younger Democratic candidate to run, who might stand a greater chance of beating Donald Trump.

“So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act,” posted Trump. “He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”

Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, Clooney said he felt it was his “civic duty” to champion an alternative nominee.

“I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney said. “It was a civic duty. When I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth, I thought that was time to.”

Reflecting on the backlash to his article, Clooney said: “The idea of freedom of speech is you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say, ‘But don’t say bad things about me.’”

He continued: “That’s the deal, you have to take your stand if you believe in it. Take a stand for it and then deal with the consequences.”

“I have to take that, that’s fair,” he concluded. “I’m OK with that, I’m OK with criticism for where I stand. I defend their right to criticise me as much as I defend my right to criticise them.”

Clooney is currently starring on Broadway in a stage version of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, about the conflict between veteran journalist Edward R Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy, who alleged that spies and Soviet sympathisers had infiltrated numerous US institutions, in particular the government, universities and the film and TV industry.