… and on that note, it’s a wrap from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. Thousands of Catholic faithful lined up to pay their final tributes to Pope Francis, as his coffin was moved to lie in state in St Peter’s Basilica after a ceremony this morning (8:23, 8:49, 9:03, 9:24, 9:28, 9:36). The coffin with his body will lie in state until Friday evening, the night before the funeral (10:47, 12:54). Our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida noted the unexpected decision to keep the coffin open during the procession (10:14), as she described how it was an “emotional experience” to see him for the final time – and spoke about the simplicity of his coffin (13:27). Elsewhere in Europe, Ukraine is ready to negotiate but not to surrender, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said as details emerged in media reports of a US proposal for a deal which would see Ukraine give up almost all territory currently occupied by Russia (16:29). The deal was described by our defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh as “Russia … willing to trade territory it does not control in Ukraine – in effect fresh air – for a US recognition of its 2014 seizure of Crimea, in other words a formal acknowledgment that it is possible to change borders by force, in effect creating an extraordinary precedent” (Ukraine blog). Apple and Meta have been fined €500m and €200m respectively for breaching the EU’s flagship digital regulation, the Digital Markets Act (12:02). The bloc’s officials insisted the enforcement decision was not linked to on-going stand-off in relations with the US (12:21). EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis warned that while the EU’s first preference is to reach a negotiated solution with the United States over trade, if discussions with the US do not lead to a solution, the EU will respond with countermeasures (16:27). A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 hit the Marmara Sea near the western outskirts of Istanbul (12:51), with more than 150 people hospitalised with injuries sustained while fleeing buildings. Denmark’s King Frederik will travel to Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, on 28 April, the Royal House confirmed (16:19). Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski told Russia “you will never rule here again,” as he presented to parliament the government’s priorities in foreign policy (16:04). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa. Ukraine is ready to negotiate but not to surrender, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said as details emerged in media reports of a US proposal for a deal which would see Ukraine give up almost all territory currently occupied by Russia. “There will be no agreement that hands Russia the stronger foundations it needs to regroup and return with greater violence,” Svyrydenko wrote on X. “A full ceasefire – on land, in the air, and at sea – is the necessary first step,” she said, adding that if Moscow instead opted for a limited pause, Kyiv would respond in kind. For all the latest on Ukraine, follow our special live blog here: EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis is in the US as he continues to look for a way out of the trade standoff between the bloc and the new Trump administration. Speaking at an IMF and World Bank meeting, he said that “the European Union is not giving up on our closest, deepest and most important partnership with the United States,” AFP reported. But he added that while the EU’s first preference is to reach a negotiated solution with the United States over trade, if discussions with the US do not lead to a solution, the EU will respond with countermeasures, Reuters said. Dombrovskis said that the EU had already offered to buy more US LNG and to reduce tariffs on certain goods, and added that the EU would welcome more clarity from the US about its expectations. Denmark’s King Frederik will travel to Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, on 28 April, the Royal House confirmed. Reuters noted that the visit to Greenland by Denmark’s head of state comes as US president Donald Trump seeks a takeover by the United States of the minerals-rich and strategically important island. According to a note published by the Royal House, the monarch will meet with members of the new Greenlandic government and visit Station Nord, “the northernmost military and scientific station in Greenland.” He will also attend the SIRIUS Dog Sled Patrol. Greenland’s prime minister Jens Frederik-Nielsen will travel to Denmark on 26 April, where he will meet with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, according to Greenlandic daily Sermitsiaq, reported by Reuters. The king will travel to Greenland together with Nielsen when the prime minister returns to the island, Reuters said. Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski told Russia “you will never rule here again,” as he presented to parliament the government’s priorities in foreign policy. “Stop fantasising about another conquest of Warsaw and focus your concerns on keeping Haishenwai,” he said, provocatively using the Chinese name for the Russian city of Vladivostok. In a wide-ranging speech, Sikorski said Europe’s goal “should not be to forge a shaky ceasefire, but a lasting and just peace” in Ukraine. He said: “The result of Russia’s war against Ukraine will define our region’s security level for years to come. It will determine for example whether Belarus will sink into the russkiy mir for good, or whether it will manage to preserve the last shreds of its autonomy. It will constitute a point of reference for the European aspirations of Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia. It will also affect the foreign policy of important partners in Central Asia who look to both Moscow and Beijing, but who are also seeking closer ties with Europe.” He added that “any arrangement with the Kremlin will only last so long as the Russian elite dreads the consequences of its breach.” Speaking about Poland’s European policy, he said the government was negotiating a new treaty with France, hoped for closer ties with the new German government in Berlin, and called for broader reset in relations post-Brexit Britain as he insisted “we share interests and values.” Sikorski also called for closer relationship with the new US administration, saying “we do not need a trade war; we need to work together in our transatlantic family.” You can read the full speech here. Let’s take a quick look at other events around Europe. The death of Pope Francis led to an abrupt uptick in viewership of Conclave, Edward Berger’s thriller which depicts the events following the death of a fictional pope, and the cardinals wrangling to replace him. The film, which won best picture at the Baftas earlier this year and was nominated for eight Oscars, is available on assorted streaming platforms worldwide. According to Luminate, which tracks streaming viewership, Conclave was viewed for about 1.8m minutes on 20 April, and 6.9m minutes the next day – an increase of 283%. The film, directed by Edward Berger, luxuriated in process both sacred and profane – the orderly processions and cafeteria run-ins, the ceremonial burning of paper votes and security screenings, the white smoke and the complimentary toiletries bags. The hallowed halls of the Vatican and the gossip that flits among them, especially as different factions compete to see their vision cemented by the most powerful religious leader in the world. As a deft and highly entertaining thriller on the furtive process of electing a new pope, well, you can expect people to consider Conclave as close to documentary as laypeople can get to the action. But how accurate is it? According to experts, more spot-on than not, and at the very least meticulously researched. The first time he spoke to Pope Francis during the pontiff’s nightly calls to the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City, the congregant George Antone, 44, found himself at a loss for words. It was October 2023, a few weeks after Hamas ignited a devastating war in the Gaza Strip by attacking Israel. The Palestinian territory’s tiny Christian community had taken shelter in the strip’s three churches, but that didn’t mean they were safe. An Israeli airstrike had just hit the Greek Orthodox church, killing 18 people; soon, snipers and bombs would also kill civilians at the Holy Family. “I was so shy when Father Yousef handed me the phone, and there was his holiness on the screen looking at me. I thought, ‘Am I dreaming, what do I talk to him about?’ He was smiling and sweet, he asked me about what I’d had to eat that day, about my family,” Antone said. “We spoke about everything. He got to know all of us … Despite everything on his shoulders in this world he cared about us in Gaza. It feels like we have lost our father.” Gaza’s population has endured terrible losses over 18 months of war. Although they never met in person, Francis’s diligent calls every night for a year and a half let the Palestinian territory’s Christian community know they were not forgotten, and his death on Monday has come as a hard blow. Read this report from Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza: As head of the Catholic church, Pope Francis’s appeal went far beyond those within his congregation. Many appreciated his views on the environment, his calls for ending poverty and inequality and for his compassionate approach to the papacy. Here, people from around the world recall their memories of the pontiff and pay tribute ahead of the conclave to choose his successor. Maria Lobão, 50, teacher, Portugal: The atheist that I am will miss this good-humoured, smiling, generous, intellectually clever and outspoken pope who preferred modesty to glamour and honours. I also appreciated his sense of mercy and ecumenical spirit. He transmitted a real feeling of decency and sincerity. He even enjoyed football! Robert, Poland: I was a volunteer during the 2016 World Youth Day in Kraków. During the meeting with volunteers, which we waited for the whole week, the pope started reading the text that he had prepared for us in English. Perhaps because of the energy and cheerfulness of all the young people who gathered there, at some point he threw his notes in the air and started speaking Spanish. After this, many volunteers from Latin America and Latin language countries became ecstatic. I didn’t understand Spanish, which made me a little disappointed, but soon after the happy atmosphere was passed on to others too. The pope felt visibly more spontaneous and at ease, making eye contact and cheering everyone up. It’s a beautiful memory. Amanda, Suffolk: I’m a lapsed Catholic and Francis was an inspiration to people like me. He was prepared to stand up to the conservative, unforgiving elements of the church and also to politicians. His clear love for all individuals, including the poorest, was inspiring. He clearly made mistakes because he was fallible like all humans. I think some progressives expected too much, taking into account the environment in which he was working. His visit to refugees in Lesbos says everything about him. I feel I’ve lost someone close to me. I wish he could have lived much longer to deliver much more needed change, but we must appreciate everything he did and celebrate that. Sadly I think there will be external influences on many cardinals with voting rights, from the US and conservative-minded countries elsewhere, resulting in a much less compassionate pope. I truly hope I am wrong. Enesa, 53, lawyer, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: He was a unique person who inspired Catholics and non-Catholics. I’m a Muslim and Pope Francis was my inspiration. He is a role model on how religious leaders should be. Unfortunately, nowadays such leaders don’t exist. Read all tributes here: I was among the first group of journalists who were taken to see the pope lying in state. The queue to St Peter’s Basilica is absolutely massive and moving very slowly, but people are very patient. Seeing Pope Francis was an emotional experience, but what struck me was the simplicity of his coffin, which is how he had always planned his funeral to be. What you see inside St Peter’s Basilica is a very simple wooden casket which is simply lined with an elegant red cloth and the pope is wearing his red vestments and holding a rosary. As one Italian pilgrim said to me, one thing that struck her was how youthful he looked. She also mentioned that there were there a lot of young people queueing here today and I’d noted that as well. She felt that Pope Francis did manage to strike a chord with the young people. We were due to have the canonisation of what will be the Catholic church’s first millennial saint Carlo Acutis on Sunday but that event has been suspended for now. One word that that keeps coming back when I ask people what they think of Pope Francis is they talk about his humility. For most people that was probably the most important characteristic and one that, at least according to the people I’ve been speaking to, they hope that the new pope will also have. Let’s go to our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida, who is on the ground in the Vatican and just visited St Peter’s Basilica to see the pope and speak with pilgrims. A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 hit the Marmara Sea near the western outskirts of Istanbul on Wednesday, officials said, with the impact felt across Turkey’s largest city where people rushed onto the streets, AFP reported. “An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude occurred in Silivri, Marmara Sea, Istanbul,” interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X. You can get a sense of how strong the earthquake was in this clip capturing the impact as CNN Turk was on air with a studio chat. There is also a lot happening today on Ukraine, after London peace talks expected to take place on ministerial level were postponed at the very last minute, with meetings downgraded to official level and closed to media. In the last half hour, US vice-president JD Vance warned that Moscow and Kyiv must strike a deal or Washington will end its efforts to reach a ceasefire. “We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes, or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters in India, AFP reported. You can follow all the latest updates here: For what it’s worth, commission deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podestà insisted the Apple and Meta decisions were “about enforcement, not about trade negotiations” with the US. She said: “It’s very distinct matters, completely separate. We have a regulation. We are applying the regulation. We apply it, of course, in the same way to all companies here. We had a decision in the making that you have been asking us about for a while. We have concluded the technical work on these decisions. We have said, so, I think, past, in the past couple of weeks, and then we have been drafting the decision. Of course, there are legal aspects to be taken into account in when drafting a decision, because it has to be sound from a legal perspective. When the decision was ready, we adopted it, and this is where we stand today.” But she faced strong criticism from journalists for both commissioners responsible for the fine not taking part in the press conference, and leaving it to spokespeople to communicate their decisions. “We don’t hold back decisions for communication purposes. We need to enforce our regulation now,” Podestà replied. In other European news elsewhere, the European Commission has just issued massive fines against US tech giants Apple and Meta for breaching its digital regulation, the Digital Markets Act. The commission found that Apple breached the DMA’s “anti-steering obligation” for developers of apps distributed on App Store and has been fined €500m. Separately, Meta was fined €200m for “breaching the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data after introducing a Consent or Pay model in 2023. The full explanation for both decisions is here. European Commission executive vice-president Teresa Ribera said the decisions “send a strong and clear message,” fining the companies for falling short of compliance with the rulebook. “As a result, we have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules. All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values,” she said. But the move is likely to trigger an angry reaction from the US, as president Donald Trump repeatedly criticised EU regulations and what he perceived as taking aim at US companies. Given the already tricky EU-US relations as a result of Trump’s aggressive trade policy, this could see the tensions rise further. Alexis Corbière, a leftwing French MP in Seine-Saint-Denis, has criticised the French government’s decision to fly flags at halfmast on public buildings in France on Saturday on the day of Pope Francis’ funeral. Corbière said that France was a secular Republic built on a clear separation of church and state, this meant it had a duty to remain neutral towards all religions and not give special treatment to one religion over another. He told France Info he was also shocked that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and two French ministers, would attend the pope’s funeral. He said French secularism shouldn’t be a “variable principle” that changes according to the religion. “If tomorrow the Dalai Lama dies, clearly French flags won’t fly at half mast. Clearly the head of state wouldn’t go to a funeral in the same way for a Muslim religious leader or a Jewish religious leader.” In 2005, when Pope John Paul II died, some French politicians also cited French secularism to question the government’s decision to fly flags at half mast. The ceremony has now concluded, and the three days of lying in state will begin, with Catholic faithful free to pay their final respects to Pope Francis until midnight and then again from 7am, up until 7pm on Friday, the night before the funeral. Just heard from Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, the former archbishop of Toronto. Collins was among the procession. He said: “It was the most profound moment. But from the simple prayers to the incense, it was no different to a funeral that any baptised person would have.” Collins, 78, will also be part of the conclave to elect the next pope, but declined to give any hint of who he thought might succeed Francis. Meanwhile, the ceremony inside St Peter’s Basilica is now over, with cardinals lining up to pay their respects at pope’s coffin first. I will bring you more updates from Angela in Rome later during the day, as she sets off to speak with pilgrims queueing to pay their final respects to Pope Francis. It’s still hard to digest that Pope Francis is no longer with us, especially as just a few days ago, he was sitting on the balcony, waving to the crowd during the Easter Sunday mass, and he had been out and about a lot in the weeks leading to his death. And although we were expecting it, because he was getting over a severe illness and was very ill, we didn’t expect it to happen so soon. The general atmosphere is quite solemn, with hymns being sung in Latin, repeating the call to “pray for us,” which was always the final thing whenever the pope communicated or said anything. He would say, “Please don’t forget to pray for me.” There are big crowds in the square and people would have been waiting since about 7 am this morning. As part of the procession, we saw dozens of cardinals walking in front, alongside and behind the coffin, flanked by the Swiss guards solemnly lined up outside the Basilica. What was unexpected was that the coffin was open. We don’t know who decided that, whether the pope made that decision himself. I was just talking to a Spanish Vatican reporter – Jordi Barcia Antelo, Vatican correspondent for the Spanish national radio, RNE – and he said it was most likely the pope who made that decision and that it was his final way of showing he was close to the people; he didn’t want to be hidden away. But that’s a surprise this morning. Let’s briefly turn to our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida, watching the ceremony from the rooftop above St Peter’s Square. The coffin has now entered St Peter’s Basilica. The crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square break into applause, as the coffin with Pope Francis’s body is carried through the square on its way into the Basilica. The procession has just entered St Peter’s Square. The coffin makes it way through the Vatican towards St Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by the choir’s singing, starting with Psalm 22. You can follow the ceremony live watching the stream at the top of the blog. After a brief ceremony inside the Santa Maria chapel, the coffin is now being moved to St Peter’s Basilica, as the bells toll for Pope Francis. Camerlengo Kevin Farrell leads the prayer: Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, we now accompany the mortal remains of our Pope Francis to the Vatican Basilica, where he often exercised his ministry as Bishop of the Church which is in Rome and as Pastor of the universal Church. As we now leave this home, let us thank the Lord for the countless gifts that he bestowed on the Christian people through his servant, Pope Francis. Let us ask him, in his mercy and kindness, to grant the late Pope an eternal home in the kingdom of heaven, and to comfort with celestial hope the papal family, the Church in Rome and the faithful throughout the world. Look kindly, Lord, on the life and works of your servant, our Pope Francis. Welcome him into the dwelling of perpetual light and peace and grant that your faithful people may follow fervently in his footsteps, bearing witness to the Gospel of Jesus, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. If you want to closely follow the order of the ceremony, here are all the texts of prayers. The ceremony of “translation”, moving the body from the Santa Maria chapel to St Peter’s Basilica, is starting now and is led by camerlengo, or chamberlain, Kevin Farrell. It is Farrell who announced the death of Pope Francis on Monday. He rose through the ecclesiastical ranks to be made camerlengo by Pope Francis, whose death has thrust him into the global spotlight. Or, as the British tabloid Metro put it: “Interim pope is a bloke called Kevin from Dublin.” Here is his profile: Austen Ivereigh, biographer of Pope Francis, has been speaking to BBC News in the last few minutes noting that “what’s remarkable about what’s happening in these days is that we have the funeral of the pope in Easter Week.” “This is incredibly unusual. I don’t know whether it’s ever happened before, because Easter week is all about celebrating the resurrection, and it’s also about the birth in the readings of the church … so there’s something actually very, very powerful and very fitting about burying, grieving, saying goodbye to the pope in this week,” he said. Ivereigh, who saw Pope Francis’s body in the Santa Maria chapel last night, said it was “hard, but it was good to accept that he is gone, and that is what really these ceremonies, what we are going through these days are about: accepting that a death has happened and coming to terms with it.” “For Catholics, this is an important part of … allowing ourselves to grieve, but also to believe that this is not the end,” he said. In the meantime, first details are emerging as to the scale of the logistics operation required for this Saturday’s funeral, with over 170 foreign delegations and around 200,000 faithful expected to come to the Vatican. The timing of the funeral coincides with the Italian bank holiday, the Liberation Day, which falls on Friday and will see muted celebrations this year due to the national mourning. Corriere della Serra is reporting that some of the most advanced defence and security mechanisms will be used to protect the faithful on Sunday, with elaborate jamming technologies, a no-fly zone over the city with enhanced air force monitoring in place, and heightened anti-terrorism alert measures. The police is also working out how to provide necessary support to all foreign delegations, and on top of that preparing for a hypothetical scenario in which an Italian cardinal gets picked as the new pope, which they expect would prompt more Italian faithful to descend on Rome. Pope Francis’s body will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning where it will lie in state for three days to allow Catholic faithful to pay their final respects ahead of a funeral expected to bring a host of world leaders including Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump. The ceremony is scheduled to start 9am Rome (8am BST), and will see Francis’s body leave the Santa Maria residence where he lived and move in a procession into St Peter’s Basilica, entering through the main entrance. The body will lie in state until Friday 7pm local time, when the public mourning will end in preparation for the funeral on Saturday morning. I will follow the ceremony and the latest reports from the Vatican and elsewhere for you. It’s Wednesday, 23 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live. Good morning.
Author: Jakub Krupa