Author: Novat

A record-breaking tunnel is being built under the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, which will slash travel times and improve Scandinavia’s links with the rest of Europe.

Running for 18km (11 miles), the Fehmarnbelt will be the world’s longest pre-fabricated road and rail tunnel.

It’s also a remarkable feat of engineering, that will see segments of the tunnel placed on top of the seafloor, and then joined together.

The project’s main construction site is located at the northern entrance to the tunnel, on the coast of Lolland island in the south east of Denmark.

The facility spans more than 500 hectares (1,235 acres), and includes a harbour and a factory that is manufacturing the tunnel sections, which are called “elements”.

“It’s a huge facility here,” says Henrik Vincentsen, chief executive of Femern, the state-owned Danish company that is building the tunnel.

To make each 217m (712ft) long and 42m wide element reinforced steel is cast with concrete.

Most underwater tunnels – including the 50km Channel Tunnel between the UK and France – burrow through bedrock beneath the seafloor. Here instead, 90 individual elements will be linked up, piece by piece, like Lego bricks.

“We are breaking records with this project,” says Mr Vincentsen. “Immersed tunnels have been built before, but never on this scale.”

With a price-tag around €7.4bn ($8.1bn; £6.3bn) the scheme has mostly been financed by Denmark, with €1.3bn from the European Commission.

It’s among the region’s largest-ever infrastructure projects, and part of a wider EU plan to strengthen travel links across the continent while reducing flying.

Once completed, the journey between Rødbyhavn in southern Denmark and Puttgarten in northern Germany, will take just 10 minutes by car, or seven minutes by train, replacing a 45-minute ferry voyage.

Bypassing western Denmark, the new rail route will also halve travel times between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours, and provide a “greener” shortcut for freight and passengers.

“It’s not only linking Denmark to Germany, it’s linking Scandinavia to central Europe,” states Mr Vincentsen. “Everybody’s a winner,” he claims. “And by travelling 160km less, you’ll also cut carbon and reduce the impact of transport.”

Towered over by cranes, the tunnel entrance sits at the base of a steep coastal wall with sparkling seawater lying overhead.

“So now we are in the first part of the tunnel,” announces senior construction manager Anders Gert Wede, as we walk inside the future highway. It’s one of five parallel tubes in each element.

There are two for railway lines, two for roads (which have two lanes in each direction), and a maintenance and emergency corridor.

At the other end enormous steel doors hold back the sea. “As you can hear, it’s quite thick,” he says tapping on the metal. “When we have a finished element at the harbour, it will be towed out to the location and then we will slowly immerse it behind the steel doors here.”

Not only are these elements long, they’re enormously heavy, weighing over 73,000 tonnes. Yet incredibly, sealing the ends watertight and fitting them with ballast tanks, gives enough buoyancy to tow them behind tugboats.

Next it’s a painstakingly complex procedure, lowering the elements 40 metres down into a trench dug out on the seafloor, using underwater cameras and GPS-guided equipment, to line it up with 15mm precision.

“We have to be very, very careful,” emphasises Mr Wede. “We have a system called ‘pin and catch’ where you have a V-shaped structure and some arms grabbing onto the element, dragging it slowly into place.”

Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic, on a stretch of sea with busy shipping lanes.

With layers of clay and bedrock of chalk, the subsurface is too soft to drill a bore tunnel, said Per Goltermann, a professor in concrete and structures at the Technical University of Denmark.

A bridge was initially considered, but strong winds might disrupt traffic, and security was another important consideration.

“There was the risk of ships crashing into bridges. We can build the bridge so they can withstand it,” he adds. “But this is rather deep water, and the biggest ships can sail there.”

So, adds Mr Goltermann, it was decided to go with an immersed tunnel. “They looked at it and said, “Okay, what is the cheapest? The tunnel. What is the safest? The tunnel.”

Denmark and Germany signed an agreement to build the tunnel back in 2008, but the scheme was delayed by opposition from ferry operators and German conservation groups concerned about the ecological impact.

One such environmental group, Nabu (The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union), argued that this area of the Baltic is an important habitat for larvae and harbour porpoises, which are sensitive to underwater noise.

However in 2020 their legal challenge was dismissed by a federal court in Germany, which green-lighted construction to go ahead.

“We have done a lot of initiatives to make sure that the impact of this project is as small as possible,” says Mr Vincentsen, pointing to a 300-hectare wetland nature and recreational area that’s planned on reclaimed land, which has been built from the dredged up sand and rock.

When the tunnel opens in 2029, Femern estimates that more than 100 trains and 12,000 cars will use it each day.

According to plans, revenues collected from toll fees will repay the state-backed loans that were taken out to finance the construction, and Mr Vincentsen calculates that will take around four decades. “Ultimately, the users are going to pay,” he says.

It’s also hoped the huge investment will boost jobs, business and tourism in Lolland, which is one of Denmark’s poorest regions.

“The locals down here have been waiting for this project for a lot of years,” said Mr Wede, who grew up nearby. “They’re looking forward to businesses coming to the area.”

Abby Wu was just 14 when she had cosmetic surgery for the first time.

After receiving hormone treatment for an illness, Abby’s weight increased from 42kg (6 stone 8lbs) to 62kg (9 stone 11lbs) in two months.

The change hadn’t gone unnoticed by her drama teacher.

“My teacher said, ‘You were our star but now you’re too fat. Either give up or lose weight fast,’” recalls Abby, who was preparing for her drama exams at the time.

Abby’s mother stepped in, taking her to get liposuction to remove fat from her belly and legs.

Abby remembers her mother’s words as she waited in the clinic in a hospital gown, nervous about the impending operation.

“Just be brave and walk in. You’ll become pretty once you’re out.”

The surgery was traumatic. Abby was only given partial anaesthesia and remained conscious throughout.

“I could see how much fat was extracted from my body and how much blood I was losing,” she says.

Now 35, Abby has gone on to have more than 100 procedures, costing half a million dollars.

She co-owns a beauty clinic in central Beijing and has become one of the most recognisable faces of China’s plastic surgery boom.

But the surgeries have come at a physical cost.

Sitting in front of a mirror inside her luxury duplex apartment in Beijing, she gently dabs concealer onto bruises from a recent face-slimming injection – a procedure she undergoes monthly to help her face appear “firmer and less chubby” after three jaw reduction surgeries removed too much bone.

But she insists she has no regrets about the surgeries and believes her mother made the right decision all those years ago.

“The surgery worked. I became more confident and happier, day by day. I think my mum made the right call.”

Once seen as taboo, plastic surgery has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years in China, fuelled by rising disposable incomes and shifts in social attitudes, in large part driven by social media.

Every year, 20 million Chinese people pay for cosmetic procedures.

Overwhelmingly, it is young women who seek surgery. Eighty per cent of patients are women and the average age of someone receiving surgery is 25.

While appearance has always been important in Chinese culture, particularly for women, beauty standards in the country are changing.

For years, the most sought-after features were a blend of Western ideals, anime fantasy and K-Pop inspiration: The double eyelid, the sculpted jawline, the prominent nose, and the symmetrical face.

But lately, more disturbing procedures are on the rise – chasing an unrealistic, hyper-feminine, almost infantile ideal.

Botox is now injected behind the ears to tilt them forward, creating the illusion of a smaller, daintier face.

Lower eyelid surgery, inspired by the glassy gaze of anime heroines, widens the eyes for an innocent, childlike look.

Upper lip shortening narrows the space between lip and nose, thought to signal youth.

But much of this beauty is built for the screen. Under filters and ring lights, the results can look flawless. In real life, the effect is often uncanny – a face not quite human, not quite child.

Cosmetic surgery apps like SoYoung (New Oxygen) and GengMei (More Beautiful) – claiming to offer algorithm-driven analysis of “facial imperfections” – have been surging in popularity.

After scanning and assessing users’ faces, they provide surgery recommendations from nearby clinics, taking a commission from each operation.

These and other beauty trends are shared and promoted by celebrities and influencers on social media, rapidly changing what’s considered desirable and normal.

As one of China’s earliest cosmetic surgery influencers, Abby has documented her procedures across major social media platforms and joined SoYoung soon after it launched.

Yet despite having undergone more than 100 procedures, when she scans her face using SoYoung’s “magic mirror” feature, the app still points out “imperfections” and suggests a long list of recommended surgeries.

“It says I have eye bags. Get a chin augmentation? I’ve done that.”

Abby seems amused.

“Nose-slimming? Should I get another nose surgery?”

Unlike typical e-commerce sites, beauty apps like SoYoung also offer a social media function. Users share detailed before-and-after diaries and often ask superusers like Abby for their advice.

To meet surging demand, clinics are opening up rapidly across China.

But there’s a shortage of qualified practitioners and large numbers of clinics are operating without a licence.

According to a report by iResearch, a marketing research firm, as of 2019, 80,000 venues in China were providing cosmetic procedures without a licence and 100,000 cosmetic practitioners were working without the right qualifications.

As a result, it’s estimated that hundreds of accidents are happening every day inside Chinese cosmetic surgery clinics.

Dr Yang Lu, a plastic surgeon and owner of a licensed cosmetic surgery clinic in Shanghai, says in recent years the number of people coming for surgeries to repair botched operations has been growing.

“I’ve seen many patients whose first surgery was botched because they went to unlicensed places,” Dr Yang says.

“Some even had surgery inside people’s homes.”

Yue Yue, 28, is among those to have surgery that went badly wrong.

In 2020 she received baby face collagen injections – designed to make the face appear more plump – from an unlicensed clinic opened by a close friend. But the fillers hardened.

“My skin felt like there was cement underneath,” she says.

Desperate to undo the damage, Yue Yue turned to clinics she found through social media – well-known names – but the repairs only made things worse.

One clinic attempted to extract the filler using syringes. Instead of removing the hardened material, they extracted her own tissue, leaving her skin loose.

Another clinic tried lifting the skin near her ears to reach the filler underneath, leaving her with two long scars and a face that looked unnaturally tight.

“My entire image collapsed. I lost my shine and it’s affected my work [in human resources for a foreign company in Shanghai] too.”

She found Dr Yang through SoYoung last year and has since undergone three repair surgeries, including for her eyelids which were damaged during a previous operation by another clinic.

But while Dr Yang’s surgeries have brought visible improvements, some of the damage from the botched procedures may be permanent.

“I don’t want to become prettier any more,” she says.

“If I could go back to how I looked before surgery, I’d be quite happy.”

Every year, tens of thousands like Yue Yue fall victim to unlicensed cosmetic clinics in China.

But even some licensed clinics and qualified surgeons aren’t following the rules strictly.

In 2020, actress Gao Liu’s botched nose operation – in which the tip of her nose turned black and died – went viral.

“My face was disfigured and I was very down. It ruined my acting career.”

She had received the nose surgery at a licensed Guangzhou clinic called She’s Times from Dr He Ming, who was described as its “chief surgeon” and a nose surgery expert.

But in reality Dr He was not fully qualified to perform the surgery without supervision and had not obtained his licensed plastic surgeon status from the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission.

Authorities fined the clinic, which closed soon after the scandal, and barred Dr He from practising for six months.

However, weeks before She’s Times was officially dissolved, a new clinic, Qingya, requested to register at the same address.

BBC Eye has found strong links between She’s Times and Qingya, such as the same Weibo account and the retention of several staff, including Dr He.

The BBC has also learned that Dr He only obtained the licensed plastic surgeon qualification in April 2024, even though he was technically barred from applying for the status for five years from the date he was sanctioned in 2021.

Qingya now claims to have opened 30 branches.

Dr He, Qingya and Guangdong Provincial Health Commission did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK said: “The Chinese government consistently requires enterprises to operate in strict compliance with national laws, regulations, and relevant policy provisions.”

Four years and two repair operations later, Gao Liu’s nose remains uneven.

“I really regret it. Why did I do it?”

China’s Central Health Commission has been trying to crack down on the issue of under-qualified health practitioners performing tasks beyond their expertise in recent years – including ordering local health bodies to improve regulation and issuing stricter guidelines – but problems persist.

In today’s China, looking good is important for professional success.

A quick search on popular job recruitment platforms reveals many examples of employers listing physical requirements for roles, even when they have little to do with the actual work.

One receptionist role asks for candidates to be “at least 160cm tall and aesthetically pleasing”, while an administrative job demands “an appealing look and an elegant presence”.

And now that pressure is being exploited by a growing scam in some Chinese clinics in which vulnerable young women are offered jobs, but only if they pay for expensive surgeries carried out by their would-be employers.

Da Lan, not her real name, applied for a “beauty consultant” job at a clinic in Chengdu, south-western China, on a popular recruitment website in March 2024.

After the interview, she was offered the position that same evening.

But she says when she began her role the next morning, she was taken to a small room by her manager, who scanned her up and down and gave her an ultimatum – get cosmetic work done or lose out on the job.

Da Lan says she was given less than an hour to decide.

Under pressure, she agreed to undergo double eyelid surgery – priced at over 13,000 yuan (£1,330) – more than three times the monthly salary of the role – with more than 30% annual interest.

She says staff took her phone and used it to apply for a so-called “beauty loan,” falsifying her income details. Within a minute, the loan was approved.

By noon, she was undergoing medical tests. An hour later, she was on the operating table.

From job offer to debt and surgery – all within 24 hours.

The surgery did nothing for her job prospects. Da Lan says her manager belittled her, shouting her name in public and swearing at her.

She quit after just a few weeks. Looking back, she believes the job was never real.

“They wanted me to leave from the beginning,” she says.

Despite having worked there for more than 10 days, she was paid only 303 yuan ($42). With help from her friends, Da Lan paid off the debt for her surgery after six months.

BBC Eye spoke to dozens of victims, and met three including Da Lan in Chengdu, a city that has set out to become China’s “capital of cosmetic surgery”. Some have been trapped in much larger debt for years.

The clinic Da Lan says scammed her had previously been reported by other graduates and exposed by local media, but it remains open and is still recruiting for the same role.

This scam isn’t limited to clinic jobs – it’s creeping into other industries.

Some live-streaming companies pressure young women to take out loans for surgery, promising a shot at influencer fame.

But behind the scenes, these firms often have undisclosed agreements with clinics – taking a cut from every applicant they send to the operating table.

In a bohemian-style café in Beijing, the perfect setting for a selfie, Abby meets her friends for coffee.

The trio adjust their poses and edit their faces in great detail – extending eyelashes and reshaping their cheekbones.

When asked what they like most about their facial features, they hesitate, struggling to name a single part they wouldn’t consider altering.

The conversation turns to chin implants, upper-lip shortening, and nose surgery.

Abby says she’s thinking about another nose job – her current one is six years old – but surgeons are finding it difficult to operate.

“My skin isn’t as stretchable after so many procedures. The doctors don’t have much to work with. You can’t give them enough fabric for a vest and expect a wedding dress.”

The metaphor lingers in the air, underscoring the toll taken by all of the operations.

But despite everything, Abby has no plans to stop.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop my journey of becoming more beautiful.”

Tesla boss Elon Musk says he will cut back his role in Donald Trump’s administration after the company’s profits and revenues plunged during the first three months of the year.

Sales slumped and the electric carmaker faced a backlash as Musk became a political fixture in the White House.

On Tuesday, the firm reported a 20% drop in automotive revenue in the first quarter of 2025, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%.

The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully hurt demand.

The recent dip in the company’s fortunes came amid an outcry over Musk’s role in Trump’s new administration, which he acknowledged had taken his focus off the company.

The tech boss contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s re-election. He also leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) initiative to cut federal spending and slash the government workforce.

Musk said his “time allocation to Doge” would “drop significantly” starting next month. He would, he said, spend only one to two days per week on government matters “as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it’s useful”.

His political involvement has sparked protests and boycotts of Tesla around the world.

He blamed the “blowback” on people who would “try to attack me and the Doge team”. But he called his work at Doge “critical” and said “getting the government house in order is mostly done”.

Tesla brought in $19.3bn (£14.5bn) in total revenue in the quarter, down 9% year on year, according to the new numbers. That was less than the $21.1bn expected by analysts, and came as the company cut prices in a bid to woo buyers.

Trump’s tariffs on China also weighed heavily on Tesla, the company indicated. Although the vehicles Tesla sells in its home market are assembled in the US, it depends on many parts made in China. “Rapidly evolving trade policy” could hurt its supply chain and raise costs, according to the company.

“This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term,” Tesla’s quarterly update said.

Musk has clashed on trade with other Trump administration figures, including trade adviser Peter Navarro.

Earlier this month, he called Navarro a “moron” over comments he had made about Tesla. Navarro had said Musk was “not a car manufacturer” but a “car assembler, in many cases”.

On Tuesday, Musk said he thought Tesla was the car company least affected by tariffs because of its localised supply chains in North America, Europe and China, but he added that tariffs were “still tough on a company where margins are low”.

“I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs but that’s all I can do,” he said on Tuesday.

Tesla said artificial intelligence would contribute to future growth, though investors have been unconvinced by such arguments in the past.

Shares in the company had shed about 37% of their value this year as of market close on Tuesday. They rose by more than 5% in after-hours trading following the results.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, called expectations “rock-bottom” after the company said earlier this month that the number of cars sold in the quarter had fallen 13% to the lowest level in three years.

The firm faces fierce competition, Mr Coatsworth said, warning that potential disruption to global supply chains as a result of Trump’s trade war also created risks.

“Tesla’s problems are mounting,” he said.

The Vatican has released several photographs of Pope Francis lying in an open coffin in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, his former residence.

We’ve taken a look at who was in the chapel and some of the symbolism on show in the images.

The most notable figure in the room is Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is the Pope’s “camerlengo” or chamberlain and runs the Vatican until a new Pope is chosen. The cardinal – in red mozzetta and cassock – is shown blessing the body of the late Pope during the rite of the declaration of death.

Pope Francis is dressed in red robes, holding a rosary and wearing the papal mitre – the large white ceremonial headdress. He is also wearing a simple silver ring.

During his inauguration, Pope Francis was given the Fisherman’s Ring – a symbol of his office – which Cardinal Farrell has the responsibility to destroy so it cannot be used by anyone else. Pope Francis sometimes used this ring during ceremonies but was more often seen using the simple silver ring adorned with a cross.

One of the significant changes in tradition is the coffin that Pope Francis will be buried in. The coffins used for previous papal burials consisted of three nesting coffins made of cypress, lead and oak – but Pope Francis asked to be buried in a simple wooden casket.

He will remain in the open coffin for the lying in state, whereas other popes have been laid out resting on cushions on a platform.

The chapel itself is nestled within the Casa Santa Marta, a residential building containing more than 100 simple rooms that was built in 1996.

Triangular shapes are present throughout the chapel, in the construction of the ceiling and on the floor tiles, representing the Holy Trinity – a key belief in Christianity where God exists as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

On the ceiling behind the coffin is an inscription in Latin, which translates as “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful”.

The Pope’s body is guarded by members of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard. They have protected the Pope since 1506, when Julius II first hired Swiss mercenaries for his personal protection.

Pope Francis will stay in the chapel until Wednesday morning, when his body will be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica in a procession starting at 09:00 local time. From then, he will lie in an open casket in the basilica, where mourners can pay their respects ahead of his funeral on Saturday.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are one of the world’s most famous power couples.

And they now have an equally famous family, with daughter Blue Ivy, 13, and seven-year-old twins, Rumi and Sir.

But Beyoncé’s mother, businesswoman and fashion designer Tina Knowles, tells me she “worries about the fame” impacting her grandchildren.

“If I had my first choice, they would not have to deal with the things that they have to deal with as kids,” she says.

Knowles, 71, says for now, the children are not too exposed to it.

“But one day they’ll read the ignorance that people put out there about them, the lies and all of that,” she says. “And I do worry about that.”

Despite those pressures, she says Beyoncé and Jay-Z – who are notoriously private about their home life – are doing an “amazing” job as parents.

“The truth is they spend abnormal amount of time with their children and they have great relationships with their kids,” she says.

“And they’re just great parents. I don’t think you could ask for better parents.”

Knowles is speaking to BBC News ahead of the publication of her new memoir, Matriarch.

It covers her childhood in Texas, her daughters’ rise to fame and her later years, as a grandmother.

Knowles now has four grandchildren, including Julez Smith, the son of her younger daughter, singer-songwriter Solange. She also considers herself a grandmother to former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland’s children.

She says that she sees all her grandchildren regularly, describing them as “one of the biggest joys in my life”.

“[Blue Ivy and I] have a very close bond,” she says of her eldest granddaughter.

“I’m so happy that she feels like she can talk to me,” she says, adding that Blue Ivy is always giving her advice about taking care of herself.

“She’s my beauty guru. She’s my manager,” she says.

I’m intrigued by this, and ask why she calls the 13-year-old her manager.

“Well, I don’t call her my manager. Everybody else calls her my manager, because she’s bossy. She’s a little Capricorn like me. So we have that bond.”

Knowles grew up in 50s and 60s Galveston, the youngest of seven.

In her book, she talks about the harassment her family faced, including from the police.

“There was a lot of racial tension,” she tells me. “And I think some things have changed, but I still think that black people are more susceptible to police brutality [and] being stopped.”

She met her now ex-husband, Mathew Knowles, in Houston and the pair went on to have two daughters, Beyoncé in 1981 and Solange five years later.

Beyoncé, she writes, was “not an easy baby”. Nursery rhymes did not cut it (“she cried louder” to drown out Mary Had A Little Lamb), but jazz music would soothe her.

As a child, Solange was a “social butterfly” but Beyoncé was shy. “She walked into every classroom trying to be invisible,” Knowles writes.

She says at the time, her daughters – and all little black girls – were being “bombarded” by messages from mainstream culture that they were “less than”.

But Beyoncé was always singing, and Solange’s talent emerged early on too.

“I knew Beyoncé had a very beautiful voice, but I didn’t know how talented she was until she was seven,” Knowles tells me.

“And Solange probably four, because she just grew up around nothing but music and performances. So she was a lot earlier.”

Knowles is adamant that she didn’t push her daughters into the music industry.

“Absolutely not. This was not my first choice for my girls. They just lived and breathed music,” she says.

“It is their decision. They were born to be entertainers.”

None of them – including Kelly Rowland, who moved in with the family – were very rebellious, she says. All they wanted to do was sing, dance and perform.

“I wanted them to have that experience of teenage life and going out to parties and having fun, but I had to force them to do that,” she says.

In the 1990s, the girl group Destiny’s Child was formed. It originally comprised Beyoncé, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett, but the final line-up was a trio – Beyoncé, Rowland, and Michelle Williams.

The band achieved worldwide fame with mega hits such as Bills, Bills, Bills, Say My Name and Jumpin’, Jumpin’.

Knowles, who ran a hair salon Headliners and had learned dressmaking, made costumes for the group, while Mathew Knowles quit his job to manage them.

Their daughters have gone on to forge hugely successful solo careers.

Solange won a Grammy Award for Cranes in the Sky, while Beyoncé has had countless hits including Single Ladies, Crazy in Love, Halo and Irreplaceable.

She finally won best album at this year’s Grammy Awards – correcting what was widely seen as an historic wrong.

The star was recognised for her eighth album, Cowboy Carter, which celebrates and contextualises the black roots of country music.

In an Instagram post ahead of her album launch, Beyoncé said Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcome” that prompted her to take “a deeper dive into the history of country”.

Many interpreted that as a reference to her treatment at the 2016 Country Music Awards, where her performance of Daddy Lessons with The Chicks led to a barrage of criticism – and racism – online.

Knowles says Beyoncé’s childhood, growing up in Texas and spending time in Louisiana, influenced her music.

“She was very influenced by [Zydeco, a music genre from Louisiana], and that culture and cowboy culture,” she says.

She added it was “interesting” to hear some saying Beyoncé is “not country Western” and shouldn’t be making that kind of music.

“It is in her. It’s in her right to make whatever music she feels like making.”

As her daughters rose to international fame, they have had to deal with media pressure and trolling – including, Knowles writes, the speculation that Beyoncé was faking her pregnancy with Blue Ivy.

There was also an infamous argument between Solange and her brother-in-law Jay-Z in an elevator in 2014, which was leaked by celebrity site TMZ.

Knowles refuses to be drawn on the lift incident.

But when asked how she protects her daughters from comments and trolling online, she says it’s actually them who protect her.

“They are very astute at blocking out the bull and the lies. And do they hurt them? Sure, but they don’t even focus on that,” she says.

“While the world is creating lies and mess, my girls are somewhere in the studio or with their kids minding their business and living their best life.”

She refuses to take credit for keeping her daughters grounded.

“I didn’t keep them on the straight and narrow. They are just very sensible people with balance in their life,” she says.

Knowles also opens up in her book about being diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in her left breast, after doctors discovered two tumours.

She is now cancer free.

“My daughters and my faith carried me through,” she writes.

So what’s next for this family of superstars?

Knowles is optimistic, saying “the sky’s the limit” when it comes to what her daughters might do next.

As for her grandchildren, she says they are being nurtured in “anything that they want for themselves… but definitely not pushed in the show business”.

At just 13, Blue Ivy has already made strides in her career. Last year, she voiced the character of Kiara in The Lion King prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, and she also performed alongside her mother on her Renaissance tour.

But Knowles says that’s something Blue Ivy had to “work for”.

“Because her mum was like, no, you got time. You got to make sure that, you know, a lot comes with that.

“And so if anything, they’re being nurtured to be the best human beings they can be. That’s first priority.”

As for whether we can expect Matriarch to be adapted into a reality series, Knowles is reticent.

“Oh, not a reality series, but you know, I have been talking to people about the movie rights to it and I would love to see a film made,” she says.

“One of my favourite films is the Jacksons’ story. Me and my kids watched it so many times and I just think that it’d be great to see that on film.”

Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles is out now.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer does not believe transgender women are women, his official spokesman has said.

It comes after the UK Supreme Court ruled last week that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

In March 2022, when he was leader of the opposition, Sir Keir told the Times that “a woman is a female adult, and in addition to that transwomen are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law”.

Asked if Sir Keir still believed that a transgender woman was a woman, the PM’s official spokesman said: “No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman.”

The spokesman added: “That is set out clearly by the court judgment.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the government of having U-turned in reaction to the judgement, accusing Labour ministers of needing the Supreme Court to tell them what to think on the issue.

Pressed over when the PM had changed his mind earlier, his spokesman insisted the Labour government had been consistent that single-sex spaces “are protected in law”.

The ruling also makes it clear that a person who was born male but identifies as a woman does not have the right to use spaces or services designated as for women only.

The spokesman stressed the PM had repeatedly said “a woman is an adult female” before the court judgment.

In 2023, Sir Keir told The Sunday Times that for “99.9%” of women “of course they haven’t got a penis”.

Later that year he told BBC Radio 5 Live “a woman is an adult female”.

And in April 2024 he said Rosie Duffield, who quit the party last year, was right to say “only women have a cervix”, telling ITV: “Biologically, she of course is right about that.”

Sir Keir had previously been critical of Duffield’s views on trans people when she was a Labour MP, saying in 2021 that she was “not right” to say only women have a cervix.

Asked whether Sir Keir would now use a trans woman’s preferred pronouns, the spokesman declined to comment on “hypotheticals” but insisted the PM had “been clear that trans women should be treated with the same dignity and respect as anyone else”.

Earlier on Tuesday Sir Keir welcomed the court’s decision, saying it had given “much-needed clarity” for those drawing up guidance.

In his first public comments since the ruling last week, the PM told ITV West Country: “We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.”

Asked if he does not believe a transwoman is a woman, he said: “A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.”

During a Commons debate on the ruling on Monday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson welcomed the “added clarity” of the ruling and said the government would work to “protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex”.

But Badenoch attacked Labour ministers’ previous record, accusing them of being “so desperate to jump on a bandwagon that they abandoned common sense”.

“I know what a woman is and I always have,” she said. “The people of this country know what a woman is.

“We didn’t need the Supreme Court to tell us that – but this government did.”

Badenoch added: “The idea that they have supported this all along is for the birds… They have never said this before, this is a U-turn, but we welcome it.”

Earlier, Phillipson was pressed over whether a trans woman should use a women’s toilet or a men’s toilet.

“That should be on the basis of biological sex – that would apply right across the board to all single-sex provision,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But the EHRC [Equality and Human Rights Commission] will be setting out additional guidance and a statutory code of practice because we need to make sure that everyone has the ability to access services that are safe and appropriate and respect their privacy and dignity.”

Phillipson added that “many businesses have moved towards unisex provision or separate cubicles that can be used by anyone”.

Asked whether there was unity in the Labour Party about this issue, she replied: “I speak for the government on this matter and I can be crystal clear with you that we welcome the ruling.”

Many Labour MPs will be uneasy about the comments from Sir Keir and Phillipson, although frustration did not seem to extend to being willing to criticise the government, but instead expressing concern about anxieties within the trans, non-binary and intersex community.

In the debate following Phillipson’s statement, Labour’s Emily Thornberry said LGBT helpline calls had “skyrocketed in recent days” and highlighted that “the overwhelming threat to women and to all of the trans community is the violence that we suffer from cis men”.

Nadia Whittome pointed out that a ban on trans women using women’s toilets, or trans men using men’s toilets, would leave them using facilities they “would not feel comfortable or safe in”.

Liberal Democrat women and equalities spokeswoman Christine Jardine warned the ruling threatened the human rights and security “of another vulnerable group in society” and questioned where trans people should now seek refuge.

Women and Equalities select committee chair, Labour’s Sarah Owen, said the judges made their decision “without a single contribution from trans people” and won a commitment from Phillipson that trans “stakeholders” would be involved in the creation of upcoming guidance.

Some MPs who have campaigned in support of trans rights pointed to commitments in Labour’s general election manifesto to introduce a “trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices” as well as to “modernise, simplify, and reform” gender recognition law.

Those are still Labour Party policies, as far as we are aware, but any sign of backsliding on that and this debate may again become a tense one within Labour’s ranks.

Correction: This article originally said that the ruling means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”. However this is inaccurate and so this line has been removed from the story.

Who will be the next pope? The decision could have a profound impact on the Catholic Church and the world’s 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics.

It also promises to be a highly unpredictable and open process for a host of reasons.

The College of Cardinals will meet in conclave in the Sistine Chapel to debate and then vote for their preferred candidates until a single name prevails.

With 80% of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis himself, they are not only electing a pope for the first time, but will offer a broad global perspective.

For the first time in history, fewer than half of those given a vote will be European.

And although the college may be dominated by his appointments, they were not exclusively “progressive” or “traditionalist”.

For those reasons, it is harder than ever to predict who will be elected the next Pope.

Could the cardinals elect an African or an Asian Pope, or might they favour one of the old hands of the Vatican administration?

Here is a selection of names being mentioned as Francis’s potential successor, and we expect more to emerge in the coming days.

Pietro Parolin

Nationality: Italian

Age: 70

Softly spoken Italian Cardinal Parolin was the Vatican’s secretary of state under Pope Francis – making him the Pope’s chief adviser. The secretary of state also heads the Roman Curia, the Church’s central administration.

Having acted effectively as deputy pope, he could be considered a frontrunner.

He is viewed by some as more likely to prioritise diplomacy and a global outlook than the purity of Catholic dogma. His critics consider that a problem, while his supporters see a strength.

But he has been critical of the legalisation of same-sex marriage around the world, calling a landmark 2015 vote in favour in the Republic of Ireland “a defeat for humanity”.

The bookmakers may back him but Cardinal Parolin will be well aware of an old Italian saying that stresses the uncertainty of the pope-picking process: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”

Some 213 of the previous 266 popes have been Italian and even though there has not been an Italian pope in 40 years, the pivot of the upper echelons of the Church away from Italy and Europe may mean there may not be another for now.

Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle

Nationality: Filipino

Age: 67

Could the next pope come from Asia?

Cardinal Tagle has decades of pastoral experience – meaning he has been an active Church leader among the people as opposed to a diplomat for the Vatican or cloistered expert on Church law.

The Church is massively influential in the Philippines, where about 80% of the population is Catholic. The country currently has a record five members of the College of Cardinals – which could make for a significant lobbying faction if they all back Cardinal Tagle.

He is considered a moderate within the Catholic definition, and has been dubbed the “Asian Francis” because of a dedication to social issues and sympathy for migrants that he shared with the late pope.

He has opposed abortion rights, calling them “a form of murder” – a position in line with the Church’s broader stance that life begins at conception. He has also spoken against euthanasia.

But in 2015 when he was Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tagle called for the Church to reassess its “severe” stance towards gay people, divorcees and single mothers, saying past harshness had done lasting harm and left people feeling “branded”, and that each individual deserved compassion and respect.

The cardinal was considered a candidate to be pope as far back as the 2013 conclave in which Francis was elected.

Asked a decade ago how he viewed suggestions he could be next, he replied: “I treat it like a joke! It’s funny.”

Fridolin Ambongo Besungu

Nationality: Congolese

Age: 65

It’s very possible the next Pope could be from Africa, where the Catholic Church continues to add millions of members. Cardinal Ambongo is a leading candidate, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

He has been Archbishop of Kinshasa for seven years, and was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis.

He is a cultural conservative, opposing blessings for same-sex marriage, stating that “unions of persons of the same sex are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil”.

Though Christianity is the majority religion in the DRC, Christians there have faced death and persecution at the hands of jihadist group Islamic State and associated rebels. Against that backdrop, Cardinal Ambongo is viewed as a fierce advocate for the Church.

But in a 2020 interview, he spoke in favour of religious plurality, saying: “Let Protestants be Protestants and Muslims be Muslims. We are going to work with them. But everyone has to keep their own identity.”

Such comments could lead some cardinals to wonder if he fully embraces their sense of mission – in which Catholics hope to spread the Church’s word throughout the world.

Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson

Nationality: Ghanaian

Age: 76

If chosen by his peers, the influential Cardinal Turkson would likewise have the distinction of being the first African pope for 1,500 years.

Like Cardinal Ambongo, he has claimed not to want the job. “I’m not sure whether anyone does aspire to become a Pope,” he told the BBC in 2013.

Asked if Africa had a good case to provide the next Pope based on the Church’s growth on the continent, he said he felt the Pope shouldn’t be chosen based on statistics, because “those types of considerations tend to muddy the waters”.

He was the first Ghanaian to be made a cardinal, back in 2003 under Pope John Paul II.

Like Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Turkson was considered a potential Pope a decade later, when Francis was chosen. In fact, bookmakers made him the favourite ahead of voting.

A guitarist who once played in a funk band, Cardinal Turkson is known for his energetic presence.

Like many cardinals from Africa, he leans conservative. However, he has opposed the criminalisation of gay relationships in African countries including his native Ghana.

In a BBC interview in 2023, while Ghana’s parliament was discussing a bill imposing harsh penalties on LGBTQ+ people, Turkson said he felt homosexuality should not be treated as an offence.

Back in 2012, he was accused of making fear-mongering predictions over the spread of Islam in Europe at a Vatican conference of bishops, for which he later apologised.

Gary Lineker has said he believes the BBC wanted him to leave Match of the Day as he was negotiating a new contract last year.

The presenter and the BBC jointly announced in November that he would be stepping down from the flagship football programme, although he will still host World Cup and FA Cup coverage.

Asked by the BBC’s Amol Rajan why he would choose to leave given his successful tenure, Lineker said: “Well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was the sense of that.”

The BBC didn’t comment on that suggestion, but at the time Lineker’s exit was announced, the corporation’s director of sport described him as a “world-class presenter”.

However, the BBC noted in the same statement that Match of the Day “continually evolves for changing viewing habits”.

A new trio of presenters – Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan – was announced in January.

Reflecting on his departure from Match of the Day, Lineker told Rajan: “It’s time. I’ve done it for a long time, it’s been brilliant.”

However, asked why he’d want to leave when the ratings were still high and it was a job Lineker still enjoyed, the former footballer said he “had the sense” the BBC had wanted him to step down.

“I always wanted one more contract, and I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether to do three years [more],” Lineker explained.

But, he continued, the matter of how long to sign for was complicated by the cycle of broadcasting rights for matches.

“In the end, I think there was a feeling that, because it was a new rights period, it was a chance to change the programme,” he said.

“I think it was their preference that I didn’t do Match of the Day for one more year, so they could bring in new people. So it’s slightly unusual that I would do the FA Cup and the World Cup, but to be honest, it’s a scenario that suits me perfectly.”

Lineker added that he was pleased his football podcasts had been picked up by BBC Sounds as part of a deal with the corporation.

Lineker was also asked about comments he posted on social media in March 2023, criticising the then-government’s immigration policy.

The remarks led to his suspension from the BBC, prompting other sports presenters to down tools in solidarity, something Lineker said he felt “moved” by.

Reflecting on his tweets, Lineker said he did not regret taking the position he did, but that he would not do it again because of the “damage” it did to the BBC.

“I don’t regret saying them publicly, because I was right – what I said, it was accurate – so not at all in that sense.

“Would I, in hindsight, do it again? No I wouldn’t, because of all the nonsense that came with it… It was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. And I wasn’t particularly rude back.”

He continued: “But I wouldn’t do it again because of all the kerfuffle that followed, and I love the BBC, and I didn’t like the damage that it did to the BBC… But do I regret it and do I think it was the wrong thing to do? No.”

The row erupted when Lineker called a government asylum policy “immeasurably cruel”, and said a video promoting it used language that was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”.

The home secretary at the time, Suella Braverman, who appeared in the video, called his criticism “offensive” and “lazy”, while Downing Street said it was “not acceptable”.

Lineker’s post reignited the debate about the BBC’s impartiality guidance on social media and how it applied to presenters.

While staff working in news and current affairs are expected to remain impartial on social platforms, there had been questions over how much the rules extended to BBC personalities in other areas such as entertainment and sport.

Lineker argued that the previous set of rules “were for people in news and current affairs”.

“They have subsequently changed,” he acknowledged. “But that left people like me, who has always given his honest opinions about things, then they suddenly changed them and you have to go, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be impartial now’. It doesn’t make any sense.”

He added: “I’ve always been strong on humanitarian issues and always will be, and that’s me.”

Lineker said that, following his tweets, “the goalposts were massively moved because it was never an issue until, suddenly, this point”.

The BBC updated its social media guidance in 2023 following a review that was commissioned in the wake of the fallout over Lineker’s tweets.

The corporation said presenters of flagship programmes, such as Match of the Day, “carry a particular responsibility to respect the BBC’s impartiality, because of their profile on the BBC”.

Asked if he understood that his comments gave ammunition to the BBC’s critics, Lineker said: “Yes of course, I understand that, but does it make it wrong what I did? I don’t think so. Would I do it if I knew what would’ve happened and transpired? Of course I wouldn’t.”

Lineker hit the headlines again recently when he, along with 500 other high-profile figures, signed an open later urging the BBC to reinstate a documentary about Gaza to iPlayer.

The documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, was pulled from the streaming service in February after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

Lineker told Rajan he would “100%” support the documentary being made available again, arguing: “I think you let people make their own minds up. We’re adults. We’re allowed to see things like that. It’s incredibly moving.”

He added that, although the 13-year-old was narrating the programme, the script had “not been written by [the child], it’s been written by the people who produced the show”.

“I think [the BBC] just capitulated to lobbying that they get a lot,” he said.

After concerns were raised, the BBC took down the programme while it carried out further due diligence. The matter is currently still being investigated by the corporation.

The BBC said it had identified serious flaws in the making of the documentary. The BBC board said the mistakes were “significant and damaging”.

In the wide-ranging interview, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, Lineker also discussed his footballing career, his son’s leukemia battle as a baby, and his views on gambling sponsorship in sports.

Lineker said the football industry should rethink its responsibility when it comes to taking money from gambling firms.

“I know people [for whom] it becomes an addiction, it can completely destroy their lives,” he said.

“There’s talk about taking [logos] off the shirts, but you see it on the boards around the ground everywhere.

“I think football needs a long, hard look at itself about that, I really do.”

On top of his presenting roles, Lineker is also the co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts, which make the successful The Rest is History series and its spin-offs about Politics, Football, Entertainment and Money.

The 64-year-old indicated to Rajan his next career move “won’t be more telly”, adding: “I think I’ll step back from that now.

“I think I’ll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it’s such a fun business and it’s just been so incredible.”

Amol Rajan Interviews: Gary Lineker is on BBC iPlayer now and will air on BBC Two at 19:00 BST on Tuesday.

Megan Dixon was 13 years old when she started feeling unwell.

By 16, her health had deteriorated to such an extent that she was taken to hospital after losing the ability to speak. Doctors believed she may have had a stroke.

She had only been due to remain there for four days for tests, but came out two years later completely paralysed. Unable to walk, talk or open her eyes, she was told she would never move again.

Megan was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), which meant there was a problem with how her brain received and sent information to the rest of the body.

Having stayed in a neurological care home in Peterborough, she is now preparing to move into her own home with the hope of becoming a nail technician.

Megan said at the age of 18, when she moved to Eagle Wood Neurological Care Centre, she was “still just a baby”.

She had never been on her own before and had to move away from her family near Bath to receive the care she needed.

“It was not easy. I think it was a lot harder for my mum and dad to have to leave me there on my own, but I couldn’t do anything for myself. I was paralysed from the neck down,” she told the BBC.

“I couldn’t see, I couldn’t talk. I hate the word, but I was very vulnerable at the time.

“I started feeling poorly when I was 13. It started off very slowly, very gradually and then in 2021, things just declined rapidly.

“I was taken into hospital because they were concerned I had had a stroke, or something, because I lost the ability to talk.

“I was taken for four days of tests and came out of hospital two years later.”

Her illness was eventually diagnosed as FND.

“It stops the functioning of signals from the brain to your body from working properly and causes all sorts of neurological symptoms,” she said.

“I couldn’t do anything for myself, I lost the ability to talk.

“I couldn’t see, so I wasn’t able to open my eyes. My brain couldn’t register the difference between eyes closed and eyes being open.”

She also lost the ability to swallow and was fed by a feeding tube in her mouth, which has been replaced by one straight into her stomach.

At her worst, she had 50 seizures a day, but that has now reduced to between 10 and 15.

After 18 months of extensive therapy, her life is completely different.

She said: “I can move everything now. Obviously I can talk, I can see. I can’t walk and I’m never going to be able to walk again, but that’s because I’ve got contractions in my knees.

“I need surgery in order to bend them because my legs are stuck straight. It’s very painful, but I’m waiting on surgery, and it means I’m never going to be able to walk again.

“Honestly, it was something I never thought I would be planning when my parents took me to the care home. They thought that was it – that it was going to be my home for the rest of my life.

“I was getting to the point that I nearly died in hospital, my body just shut down that much.

“The doctors did have to tell my parents to prepare for the worst – they didn’t think I would make it to 18 and here I am at 20.”

Her dream is to be a nail technician and she is saving up to complete an online course.

“I really can’t wait to finally move out and get a place with my boyfriend,” she said. “I’m very excited.”

FND Action said the brain network disorder encompassed neurological symptoms including limb weakness, paralysis, seizures, walking difficulties, spasms, twitching, sensory issues and more.

“For many, symptoms are severe and disabling, and life-changing for all,” it said.

It added that while the basic wiring of the nervous system was intact, people with the disorder had a problem with how the brain or nervous system was “functioning”, and the brain failed to send or receive signals correctly.

“Historically FND has often been viewed as resulting purely from psychological and emotional trauma, this has frequently led to stigma and dismissal from medical professionals,” it added.

“This view is now seen as outdated, and psychological trauma is now viewed as a risk factor for developing the condition rather than the root cause.”

Megan said she had been left isolated, frustrated and exhausted at times due to how “unpredictable” life with FND had been.

She now shares her experiences on TikTok.

“Every small victory, whether it’s moving a finger, speaking a word, or simply making it through another day is worth celebrating,” she said.

When the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, left Argentina’s capital to participate in the Vatican conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor, he did not know it would be the last time he would see his hometown.

The fact that Pope Francis never returned to his country after becoming the pontiff left some Argentines with a heavy heart.

Speaking on Monday, Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva said his parish were “orphans of a father who profoundly loved his country and had to learn to become the father of the whole world”.

He also added that Francis becoming Pope “cost us as Argentines a little bit… Bergoglio left us to become Francis”.

It came as a surprise to many – including Bergoglio himself – that he was elected to the highest office in the Catholic Church in the first place.

At 76 years old at the time – one year older than the typical age of bishops and cardinals when they submit their resignation to the pope – he was not seen as a real candidate to fill the vacancy, according to analysts.

“When he left Buenos Aires for the conclave, he seemed somewhat sad; he was getting ready to retire in a room at the Priests’ Home in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Flores,” Guillermo Marcó, a priest from the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, told Argentine newspaper Clarín.

However, Bergoglio would soon begin a papacy that lasted 12 years.

His death has been particularly keenly felt in his home country, where seven days of national mourning have been declared – as Argentina grieves a man many regarded as simple and humble, despite holding one of the most powerful offices in the world.

Those qualities were praised by Elenir Ramazol, a nun who spoke to BBC Mundo during a vigil at the Buenos Aires cathedral on Monday.

The fact he did not return to his homeland was “a sign of the total commitment he made to the whole Church, not just to his people, to his country”, Ms Ramazol said.

Gustavo Vera exchanged hundreds of letters with Francis, having become friends with him when he was still archbishop. He agreed that the pontiff always showed an enduring interest in what was happening in his home country.

“Sometimes he commented on soccer, sometimes on tango, sometimes on cultural events,” Mr Vera, the leader of La Alameda, an Argentine anti-trafficking and slavery organisation, said. Francis followed Argentine news “in detail”, he added.

During his papacy, Francis visited four of the five countries that border Argentina – but never his home country, despite continuing to take a keen interest in it.

He was loved by many there who now mourn him, but others remember him as a controversial figure.

The initial pride felt by most Argentines after the announcement that a fellow countryman would be the first Latin American pope gave way to disenchantment among some over the years.

A Pew Research Center survey suggested that the proportion of people who held a positive view of the pontiff fell from 91% in 2013 to 64% in 2024.

Of six Latin American countries surveyed, the largest drop in favourable attitudes was recorded in Argentina.

Conservatives in Argentina accused him of undermining historical traditions they held sacred, while reformers hoped for more profound changes.

Critics felt he failed to do enough to oppose the country’s brutal military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s and to criticise the complicity of some figures in the Church.

Every time he was asked about a possible trip, Pope Francis gave vague answers.

“I would like to go. It’s my people, but it hasn’t been planned yet. There are several things to sort out first,” he said the last time he was publicly asked about the subject, in September 2024.

Some fellow Argentines found this hesitation difficult to understand.

The pontiff’s absence has been felt more acutely in recent years, as Argentina has endured a profound economic crisis, with annual inflation reaching nearly 300% and a sharp increase in poverty.

Mr Vera suggests that Francis was planning to visit, but had not yet done so because he wanted to avoid his presence being used for political purposes.

“He always used to say he would go to Argentina when he felt that he was an instrument to bring about national unity, to help overcome the rift, to try to bring Argentines back together,” Mr Vera said.

The “rift” refers to the vast, decades-long gulf in Argentine politics and society between supporters and opponents of the populist political movement Peronism, founded by late President Juan Perón in the 1940s.

There is a widespread belief in the country that Pope Francis was a Peronist – something he denied in a book in 2023, while adding: “If we had a Peronist conception of politics, what would be wrong with that?”

The comment was seized upon by conservative detractors who accused him of being too closely aligned with social justice causes and left-wing politics.

Before taking office, Javier Milei, the current president who has demonised left-wing politics, even called Pope Francis “the representation of evil on Earth” – although he softened his tone after coming to power.

The two had a cordial meeting in the Vatican and President Milei officially invited the pontiff to Argentina. And following the Pope’s death, Milei said he was deeply pained by his loss, and praised the pontiff’s benevolence and wisdom.

Some Argentines accused him of being too close to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a divisive left-leaning populist politician, who was president from 2007 to 2015.

But according to Mr Vera, the Pope met with people “from the whole political and social spectrum of Argentina”.

The late pontiff’s friend also pointed out that, while there was some criticism of Pope Francis in the media and major urban centres, he was loved in other parts of the country.

Although he maintained his connection with Argentina, Mr Vera said, Pope Francis no longer felt he belonged to just one country.

“Argentines believe he was Argentinian, but in reality, he was a citizen of the world,” he added.

It is a view shared by Alejandra Castro, a social worker who was among the mourners who gathered on Monday night at Buenos Aires cathedral.

Argentina was “always in his prayers”, Ms Castro said. “In one way or another, he was always present, and I think that shows that in his heart, Argentina was always present.”

But Mr Vera acknowledged that not everyone felt the same way, and suggested it was up to Argentines to look within themselves for answers: “Rather than blaming Francis, we Argentines should ask ourselves what we were doing that meant we did not deserve the Pope’s visit.”

Vladimir Putin signalled he was open to talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the early stages of the war, but Russian strikes continued hours after his comments.

Speaking to Russian state TV on Monday, Putin said Russia had “always looked positively on any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s comments indicated a willingness to engage in direct talks with Ukraine about not striking civilian targets.

However, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities continued on Tuesday with a wave of strikes across the country.

A strike on an apartment block in Zaporizhzhia killed one woman and injured 20 others, including four children.

In Kharkiv in the country’s east, authorities said a massive drone attack on Tuesday during the daytime injured at least seven people.

President Zelensky said on Tuesday afternoon there had also been strikes on Odesa, Sumy, Donetsk and other southern regions, while Ukrainian media also reported a strike in south-east Kherson.

The Monday night strike on Odesa had targeted a five-storey unit block and injured three people, local media reported.

President Zelensky described the wave of attacks as “deliberate Russian terror” which could be “stopped by a single order”.

This had been proven by the short-lived Easter truce on Saturday, “when there were no airstrikes in Ukraine”, he wrote on Telegram.

He again reiterated that Ukraine had proposed to extend that truce. He also again raised his proposal, voiced on Sunday, for a 30-day period for a cease to “any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days”.

Putin’s remarks on Monday evening were believed to be in response to this proposal.

There have been no direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since the initial weeks after the former launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” Peskov told the Interfax news agency, clarifying Putin’s remarks.

Zelensky, in his nightly video address, on Monday said Ukraine needed a “clear answer from Moscow” on whether it would agree to stop attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Referring to the short-lived and limited truce declared by Putin over Easter, the Ukrainian leader proposed a follow-up that would “cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days”.

“If Russia does not agree to such a step, it will be proof that it wants to continue doing only things that destroy people’s lives and continue the war,” he said.

Putin said the Kremlin would “analyse” the idea, telling journalists that “as for the proposal not to strike at civilian infrastructure facilities… this needs to be sorted out”.

In a rare admission, he acknowledged that the military had targeted a civilian building when Russian missiles killed 35 people and wounded more than 100 others in the centre of the north-eastern city of Sumy earlier this month.

This was the worst Russian attack on civilians in Ukraine this year.

“Everyone is well aware of the strike by our Armed Forces on a congress centre, I think, in Sumy Region. Is it a civilian facility or not? Civilian,” Putin said.

“But there was an award ceremony for those who committed crimes in Kursk Region,” he added referring to gathering of Ukrainian soldiers in the city centre at the time.

The centre of Sumy was busy at the time, with people out on the streets marking Palm Sunday. The region’s deputy leader was later fired after reports of the medal ceremony taking place in a local congress hall emerged.

Ukraine is due to participate in talks with US and European countries in London on Wednesday, following a meeting in Paris last week where leaders discussed pathways to end the war.

Zelensky said the “primary task” of the talks would be “to push for an unconditional ceasefire”.

The US President said earlier this week that he was hopeful Russia and Ukraine would reach a deal this week, after he had threatened to “take a pass” on further peace negotiations if no progress is made.

Some critics had called Putin’s 30-hour Easter truce a marketing stunt by Moscow. France’s foreign minister, Jean- Noël Barrot, said it had been designed to prevent Donald Trump from getting impatient and angry.

Over 12 profoundly consequential years for the Catholic Church, Pope Francis steered it into uncharted territory and did so in ways that will resonate long into the future.

The pontiff worked to soften the face of the Catholic Church for many, loosened the Vatican’s grip on power and intervened in some of the major social questions of our time.

Within Catholicism, he certainly had his critics; some traditionalists in particular were often enraged by actions they felt were a radical departure from Church teaching.

Despite him being a vocal pacifist and critic of actions by major nations that he perceived as harmful, there were also those who felt he should have been more progressive.

But from the moment he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis came with an informality and a smile that put the people he met at their ease. It was symbolic of a principle that guided his belief that the Church should reach people in their daily lives, wherever in the world they happened to be.

“At the beginning of my papacy I had the feeling that it would be brief: no more than three or four years, I thought,” Pope Francis said in his autobiography Hope, released in January 2025, a book that gives us insight into the Pope’s own reflections on his legacy.

One of his first acts as pope was to give up the papal apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, instead choosing to live in the same guesthouse in which he had stayed as a cardinal.

Some saw this as a sign he was giving up the ostentatious trappings of papacy, and of the humility he would certainly become known for – he had, after all, taken the name of a saint who championed the cause of the poor.

But the main reason for surrendering the papal apartment, as he later explained it, pointed to another of his characteristics: that he loved being around people.

To him, the apartment felt detached and a difficult place in which to welcome guests. At the guesthouse he was surrounded by clergy and rarely alone for long.

On foreign trips to more than 60 countries, in his audiences at the Vatican and during countless events, it was very clear that being close to people, and particularly the young, was his lifeblood.

Within Catholicism, he signalled a radical change in tone on some social issues.

“Everyone in the Church is invited, including people who are divorced, including people who are homosexual, including people who are transgender,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Given that the Church did not recognise divorce in its canon law and that previous popes had talked of homosexuality as a disorder not “a human fact”, as Pope Francis did, this was a departure that again concerned traditionalists.

But the Pope appeared to want the Church to explore and understand people’s every day struggles in a fresh light. He acknowledged his own journey in seeing things differently to the way he had done in the past.

Progressives welcomed the Pope’s compassion for what he called “imperfect Catholics”, but there was also a recognition more broadly that words of acceptance from a pontiff could have an effect on those outside the Church too.

“The first time that a group of transgender people came to the Vatican, they left in tears, moved because I had taken their hands, had kissed them… as if I had done something exceptional for them! But they are daughters of God,” he wrote in Hope.

Pope Francis roundly condemned countries that consider homosexuality a crime, and he talked of divorce sometimes being “morally necessary”, citing cases of domestic abuse.

However, there are those who suggest the Pope could have gone further to encourage change in Church teaching.

Homosexual “acts” remain a sin in Catholicism, marriage can still only be between a man and a woman, divorce is still not officially recognised and the Pope himself remained very firmly against gender reassignment and surrogacy.

Throughout his papacy, and long before that, Pope Francis also always remained firm in his own belief that women should not be priests.

He did however describe the Church as “female” and encouraged parishes around the world to find more leadership roles for women in ways that were consistent with the Catholic teaching that does not currently allow women to be ordained.

In 2021 Sister Raffaella Petrini was appointed secretary general of the papal state and under Pope Francis the Vatican did start an ongoing process of exploring whether women could take up the role of deacon, assisting in worship services.

Nevertheless, some reformists were left disappointed that more progress was not made regarding equality for women, in a faith where the majority of churchgoers are women.

During the latter part of his papacy, the Pope launched an ambitious three-year consultation process aimed at gauging the opinion of as many of the world’s more-than-a-billion Catholics as possible.

There were tens of thousands of listening sessions across the globe, meant to tease out the issues that Catholics most cared about. It transpired that roles for women and ways in which the Church could become more inclusive to LGBT+ Catholics were high on the list.

While the process itself did not lead to decisive action on either front, it did speak volumes about Pope Francis’ desire that his pontificate was rooted not in Rome and in clerics but in the lives of believers around the world.

Throughout his papacy, there was a particular focus on reaching out to those on the economic and political margins, his words and actions encouraging his priests to be closer to the disadvantaged.

The issue of dignity for migrants was hugely important to him throughout his papacy, but so too was building bridges with other Christian denominations, other religions and those of no faith.

On occasions, to some Catholic traditionalists, the Pope’s outreach appeared inappropriate for someone of his position, like his visit to a centre for asylum seekers outside Rome in spring 2016 when he washed and kissed the feet of refugees that included Muslims, Hindus and Coptic Christians.

As well as becoming a passionate voice for migrants – once going to lay a wreath on the waters where many had died on their perilous journeys – he also linked the impact of climate change to poverty.

In speeches, including one to US Congress, and in one of his most important pieces of work, the decree Laudato Si, Pope Francis talked of environmental damage amounting to rich countries inflicting harm on poor ones.

Vehemently anti-war, the Pope frequently talked of conflict itself equating to failure.

He called the war in Gaza “terrorism” and from early on he implored that there be a ceasefire.

He met the families of the Israelis abducted by Hamas on 7 October 2023, but also spoke passionately about the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, particularly children, and made daily calls to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

But sometimes a longing to build bridges was seen by some observers as getting in the way of Pope Francis taking a firm stance against wrongdoing.

In the eyes of many, he failed to unequivocally call out Russian aggression in Ukraine or tackle China’s surveillance and persecution of its Catholics.

From the very start of his papacy, he also faced huge tasks confronting misconduct much closer to home.

The scourge of corruption had long dogged the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. Early on, Pope Francis closed thousands of unauthorised Vatican bank accounts, and in the latter half of his time he introduced new rules on financial transparency.

It was in the way he dealt with the horrors of child sexual abuse by those associated with the Catholic Church that made it clear he knew it was something he would be judged by.

“From the very start of my papacy, I felt I was being called to take responsibility for all the evil committed by certain priests,” he wrote in Hope.

As an illustration of the scale of the problem that remains, in 2020 the Catholic Church released lists of living members of clergy in the US alone found to have been accused of sexual abuses – these included clergy linked to child pornography and rape. There were around 2,000.

“With shame and repentance, the Church must seek pardon for the terrible damage that those clergy have caused with their sexual abuse of children, a crime that causes deep wounds of pain,” he recently wrote.

Among other initiatives, Pope Francis introduced rules that meant members of the Church had a responsibility to report on abuse if they had knowledge of it, otherwise they risked being removed from their positions.

Though he made errors of judgement, on occasions publicly supporting clergy even though they were alleged to have failed to deal with abuse, Pope Francis was quick to apologise for his own mistakes and for the deep failings of the Church.

Both at the Vatican and abroad he would frequently meet with Church abuse victims. Saying “sorry” for abuse was the prime focus of some foreign trips.

A huge part of Pope Francis’ legacy is the way in which he changed the face of the upper echelons of the Catholic Church through his selection of new cardinals.

In fact, about 80% of the cardinals that will select the next pope were appointed by Pope Francis. What is striking about those selections is their diversity, with many coming from South America, Africa and Asia.

It was part of Pope Francis’ mission to consolidate a change in the centre of gravity of Catholicism away from Europe, where it was in decline, towards the places it was thriving, and to reflect that in Church leadership.

The posthumous outpouring of tributes to him from across the globe is perhaps one sign that shift is working.

Top picture credit: Reuters

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When the world learned of Pope Francis’ death on Monday morning, an Irish-American cardinal, little known in the wider world, was the one to break the news.

After announcing that the pope had “returned to the home of the Father”, Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell took on one of his biggest roles yet: the “camerlengo”, or the person who runs the Vatican after the death or resignation of a pope.

Pope Francis nominated the cardinal for the role in 2019. The cardinal will remain in the position during the “Apostolica Sedes Vacans”, the period between the death or resignation of a pope until the election of the next pontiff.

He also will play an important role in the centuries-old ceremonies to mourn Pope Francis.

Born in 1947 in Dublin, Farrell attended the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, according to the Vatican.

He held roles in churches around the world, serving as a chaplain at the University of Monterrey in Mexico as well as at a parish in Bethesda, Maryland.

All told, the 77-year-old spent more than 30 years working for churches in the US.

Farrell was appointed Bishop of Dallas in 2007 until Pope Francis asked him in 2016 to serve as the leader of the Vatican’s new department responsible for the pastoral care of families, raising him to the rank of cardinal.

Years after naming him as camerlengo, in 2023, Francis chose Farrell as president of the Supreme Court of Vatican City State. He was also named president of the Commission for Confidential Matters.

As camerlengo, Cardinal Farrell will be tasked with making arrangements for the conclave, the process through which the next pontiff is selected.

Technically, a camerlengo can become pope, as has happened twice in history: Gioacchino Pecci (Pope Leo XIII) in 1878 and Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) in 1939.

The cardinal also will preside over the certification of Francis’s death, laying his body into the coffin. After that, the cardinal is expected to lead a procession moving the pope’s body from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta to St Peter’s Basilica.

The ceremony could take place as soon as Wednesday morning, according to the Vatican.