Hundreds of thousands of mourners and world leaders including US President Donald Trump packed St Peter’s Square on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, “pope among the people” and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American leader.
Some waited overnight to get a seat in the vast square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, with the Vatican reporting some 250,000 people attended, in an outpouring of support for the Argentine pontiff.
More than 50 heads of state were also present at the solemn ceremony, including Trump — who met several world leaders in a corner of the basilica beforehand, notably Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zelensky, in their first face-to-face since their Oval Office clash in February.
The crowds applauded as the pope’s coffin was carried out of the basilica by white gloved pallbearers, accompanied by more than 200 red-robed cardinals, and then again as it was taken back after the approximately two-hour mass.
Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, was “a pope among the people, with an open heart”, who strove for a more compassionate, open-minded Catholic Church, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said in his funeral homily.
There was applause again from the masses gathered under bright blue skies as he hailed the pope’s “conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open”.
Francis sought to steer the centuries-old Church into a more inclusive direction during his 12-year papacy, and his death prompted a global outpouring of emotion.
“I’m touched by how many people are here. It’s beautiful to see all these nationalities together,” said Jeremie Metais, 29, from Grenoble, France.
“It’s a bit like the centre of the world today.”
Italian and Vatican authorities mounted a major security operation for the ceremony, with fighter jets on standby and snipers positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny city state.
After the funeral, the pope’s simple wooden coffin was put onto a white popemobile for a slow drive through the streets of Rome to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he will be buried.
The funeral sets off the first of nine days of official Vatican mourning for Francis, who took over following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.
After the mourning, cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Many of Francis’s reforms angered traditionalists, while his criticism of injustices, from the treatment of migrants to the damage wrought by global warming, riled many world leaders.
Yet the former archbishop of Buenos Aires’s compassion and charisma earned him global affection and respect.
“His gestures and exhortations in favour of refugees and displaced persons are countless,” Battista Re said.
He recalled the first trip of Francis’s papacy to Lampedusa, an Italian island that is often the first port of call for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, as well as when the Argentine celebrated mass on the border between Mexico and the US.
Trump’s administration drew the pontiff’s ire for its mass deportation of migrants, but the president has paid tribute to “a good man” who “loved the world”.
Making the first foreign trip of his second term, Trump sat among dozens of leaders from other countries — many of them keen to bend his ear over a trade war he unleashed, among other subjects.
The White House said Saturday that the president had a “very productive” meeting with Zelensky before the funeral, while a second meeting was planned after, the Ukrainian presidency said.
Kyiv published a photo of the encounter, the two men sitting face to face in red and gold chairs in the basilica, as well as another showing Zelensky huddled with Trump, Britain’s Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the homily, Battista Re highlighted Francis’s incessant calls for peace, and said he urged “reason and honest negotiation” in efforts to end conflicts raging around the world.
“‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” the cardinal said.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden also attended the funeral, alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Lebanon’s Joseph Aoun.
Israel — angered by Francis’s criticism of its conduct in Gaza — sent only its Holy See ambassador. China, which does not have formal relations with the Vatican, did not send any representative.
Italian mourners Francesco Morello, 58, said the homily about peace was a “fitting, strong and beautiful message”.
Of the world leaders gathered, Morello noted: “He could not bring them together in life but he managed in death.”
Simple tomb
Francis died of a stroke and heart failure less than a month after he left hospital where he had battled pneumonia for five weeks.
He loved nothing more than being among his flock, taking selfies with the faithful and kissing babies, and made it his mission to visit the peripheries, rather than mainstream centres of Catholicism.
His last public act, the day before his death, was an Easter Sunday blessing of the entire world, ending his papacy as he had begun it — with an appeal to protect the “vulnerable, the marginalised and migrants”.
The Jesuit chose to be named after Saint Francis of Assisi, saying he wanted “a poor Church for the poor”, and eschewed fine robes and the papal palace.
Instead, the Church’s 266th pope lived at a Vatican guesthouse and chose to be interred in his favourite Rome church — the first pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican walls in more than a century.
Catholics around the world held events to watch the proceedings live, including in Buenos Aires, where Francis was born Jorge Bergoglio in the poor neighbourhood of Flores in 1936.
“The pope showed us that there was another way to live the faith,” said Lara Amado, 25, in the Argentine capital.
Francis asked to be put inside a single wooden coffin to be laid in a simple marble tomb, marked only with the inscription “Franciscus”, his name in Latin.
Francis’s admirers credit him with transforming perceptions of the Church and helping revive the faith following decades of clerical sex abuse scandals.
He was considered a radical by some for allowing divorced and remarried believers to receive communion, approving the baptism of transgender believers and blessings for same-sex couples, and refusing to judge gay Catholics.
But he also stuck with some centuries-old dogma, notably holding firm on the Church’s opposition to abortion.
Francis strove for “a Church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart”, Battista Re said.
“A Church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has questioned why former President Olusegun Obasanjo waited until after Ghali Umar Na’Abba’s death to allege that he paid the former House of Representatives Speaker N5 million to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.
Atiku said raising the allegation when Na’Abba could no longer respond denied Nigerians the opportunity to hear the other side, describing it as a politically motivated attempt to damage his reputation and boost the electoral fortunes of Obasanjo’s unnamed kinsman ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Obasanjo alleged in a letter to former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba that Atiku invited Na’Abba to the Presidential Villa while he was away and convinced the former speaker that he should serve only one term.
The former president claimed the alleged payment formed part of Atiku’s attempt to seize power by “hook or by crook”.
However, Atiku rejected the allegation as politically motivated in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate aid the timing of Obasanjo’s allegation showed that it was intended to influence the political contest ahead of the 2027 general election.
Atiku accused his former principal of attempting to tarnish his reputation to give an unfair political advantage to an unnamed kinsman.
“Coming at a time when the political landscape ahead of the 2027 general election is taking shape, the obvious objective is to besmirch my person and reputation and confer an undeserved political advantage on the former President’s kinsman,” he said.
Atiku argued that Nigerians were too discerning to be distracted by an allegation revived for political convenience.
He challenged Obasanjo to openly identify and support his preferred presidential candidate instead of attempting to shape public opinion through claims that could no longer be independently tested.
“If former President Obasanjo has chosen to take a political position ahead of 2027, he should simply declare it and allow Nigerians to judge it on its merits,” Atiku said.
The former vice-president questioned why Obasanjo waited until after Na’Abba’s death to repeat the allegation, saying the timing denied Nigerians the opportunity to hear the former speaker’s version of events.
He also maintained that the bribery allegation had no judicial or official backing.
Atiku argued that Obasanjo’s government controlled the full powers of the Nigerian State and could have investigated and prosecuted any criminal conduct if credible evidence existed at the time.
“If there was indeed evidence of any criminal conduct as alleged, Nigerians are entitled to ask why no action was taken at the time by a government that wielded the full powers of the Nigerian state,” he said.
Atiku linked Obasanjo’s continued hostility towards him to their disagreement over the alleged attempt to secure a third presidential term.
He said he opposed the plan because it threatened Nigeria’s constitutional democracy and refused to sacrifice democratic principles for Obasanjo’s personal ambition.
The ADC leader recalled that he successfully challenged actions taken against him by the Obasanjo administration through a series of court cases.
“Rather than surrender democratic principles on the altar of personal ambition, I defended the Constitution and successfully asserted my rights through the courts in a series of landmark legal victories against a sitting President,” he said.
Atiku described those legal battles as an important part of Nigeria’s democratic history, insisting that Obasanjo had not overcome the bitterness created by their confrontation.
He said he would not allow himself to be dragged into a prolonged dispute over past political battles while Nigerians faced worsening economic hardship, hunger, unemployment and insecurity.
Atiku said his attention remained on presenting credible alternatives, protecting democracy, demanding accountability and working with patriotic Nigerians to restore competent and transparent leadership.
“Nigerians deserve solutions to today’s problems, not recycled political tales from yesterday,” he declared.
The new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, on Monday, unveiled a 10-year plan to tackle the country’s economic and social challenges as he began reshaping his government, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves among senior ministers leaving the Cabinet.
In his first speech outside 10 Downing Street, Burnham said his government would introduce measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis, end rough sleeping, build more council homes and devolve more powers away from Westminster.
“This moment will be a circuit breaker for Britain,” Burnham said, adding that details of the government’s cost-of-living package and how it would be funded would be announced from Tuesday.
According to the BBC, Reeves announced on X that she was stepping down as Chancellor of the Exchequer, describing it as “the privilege of my life” to have served in the role. The broadcaster reported that Burnham had offered her another senior cabinet position, but she declined.
The cabinet reshuffle also saw Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, Housing Secretary, Steve Reed and Business Secretary, Peter Kyle leave government as Burnham assembled his own team.
Speaking to reporters after his Downing Street address, Burnham said he would examine the tax-free personal allowance ahead of his first Budget in the autumn but acknowledged that raising the threshold would have significant fiscal implications.
He also pledged to reform England’s social care system, saying he did not want to leave office without fixing a problem that had persisted for decades, while reaffirming his commitment to existing fiscal rules.
The BBC also reported that Burnham held his first conversation with a foreign leader after taking office, speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The resignation of the outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying he was leaving office “with good grace” and “a smile.”
Burnham is expected to continue announcing appointments to his new Cabinet as his administration takes shape, according to the BBC.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has clarified the sharp increase in Nigeria’s public debt.
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Finance on the state of the nation’s economy on Monday, Oyedele attributed the increase to naira depreciation and accounting adjustments rather than fresh borrowing by the Bola Tinubu administration.
Oyedele was responding to questions from the senator representing Kebbi Central, Adamu Aliero, over claims that the current administration had borrowed about N80 trillion in addition to the N75 trillion public debt it inherited.
According to the minister, comparing the country’s debt stock at the start of the administration with the current figure without accounting for exchange rate movements created a misleading impression.
“When this administration came into office, public debt was around N75 trillion. Many people simply compare that figure with today’s debt stock and conclude that this government has borrowed massively.
“However, it is important to note that, following the reforms and the depreciation of the naira, the foreign currency component of our public debt had to be revalued because Nigeria reports its debt in Naira. That accounting adjustment alone added more than N40 trillion to the public debt figure,” he said.
He added that the securitisation of the Ways and Means advances inherited from the previous administration also contributed significantly to the increase in the debt stock.
The minister further said that much of the government’s domestic borrowing was used to refinance existing debt rather than accumulate new obligations.
According to him, the Tinubu administration had adopted a prudent borrowing strategy focused on infrastructure and long-term economic growth.
